The Bad Wolf Lady
by ncrippa1
Summary: John Smythe was ordinary. The Wolf changed that. John's life is forever altered after the word, "Run". But why is this mysterious girl always hiding, always running? Can John save her, even if it's from herself? Will the Wolf let him? AU of Season 1 with Rose!Doctor and John!Companion.
1. Nice to Meet You

**AN: Hey to anyone reading this story! You're awesome. This is a role-reversal story where Rose is the Doctor and the Doctor is the companion. I've seen a couple of these stories on here and have been intrigued, but they never go past a few chapters, so I thought I'd give it a go! **

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not have in my possession any part of Doctor Who, and am unlikely to ever have it in my possession.**

* * *

Nice to Meet You

The drone of the alarm woke Dr. John Smythe from slumber long before he was ready. He slammed it off, and headed off to take a shower with a groan. He ran through his morning routine half asleep, and got on the #11 bus to the hospital like he did every day.

John was a trauma surgeon at the New Hope Hospital in London, which meant he was far too much of an expert at treating gunshot and stab wounds for his liking. He enjoyed the challenges an emergency gave him, but he sometimes felt discouraged by how the flow never ceased. For every life he saved, there was always one he lost. Sometimes John wished that he could feel like he was actually making a difference, rather than just stemming the tide.

John's life revolved around his work. He was in his mid-thirties, lost his parents years ago to an accident when he was 16, only child, no other close family, the usual sad story. He'd always been too busy studying to find a steady girlfriend, and by the time he got to New Hope, he was comfortable living the bachelor life. He was good looking, if he didn't mind saying so himself, got along with most people, and was still cordial to those he didn't. All in all, John didn't feel like his life was missing much of anything.

As he entered the emergency ward, he greeted the nurses, set his stuff in the doctors' locker room, and began his shift. It was a relatively slow day. John was able to leave early, a fact he was grateful for, as his refrigerator had been decidedly bare that morning as he searched for breakfast, and he belatedly remembered that he needed to buy a nice suit for the wedding of a fellow doctor he was supposed to attend that weekend. He would have time to go to Henrick's that night for the suit and just pop into a grocery for some food before heading home.

Things didn't go quite as planned for John. As he was leaving the hospital, a friend came out after him and asked if he wanted to go for a drink. Not much of a drinker but not feeling able to refuse, John went out to a nearby bar for one beer before making excuses to leave. By then, he was nearer a market than he was Henrick's, so he bought food enough for a couple of days and dropped that at his apartment before heading to the shop. He got there just half an hour before closing, and quickly began looking for a suit. It didn't take long before he found a likely candidate in a brown pinstriped affair that he took an immediate liking to. It would look a little unorthodox at a wedding, but he didn't like going with the crowd anyways. If it fit, it would be perfect. With five minutes to spare, John took the suit to the changing room.

There was an unusual amount of plastic mannequins in the changing area; John wondered if that was where they kept the dummies at night. There had to be at least ten of them, and no staff in sight. Wasn't there supposed to be one somewhere, folding clothes, keeping an eye on the place? John had never worked in a shop, but that seemed to be what they were usually doing when he came in. They didn't want people walking off with clothes did they?

"Hello? Is there anybody in here? Look, I want to try on this suit before the shop closes. Hello!" There was a clatter somewhere John couldn't see. "Hello?" He peered around a corner. Nothing there but more shop window dummies. He looked back into the main shopping area. That was empty too. That seemed odd. The staff couldn't leave while there were still customers – could they? Another thump comes from the dressing room. John turns back.

"Is that someone mucking about?" He turns to the right down an aisle of changing stalls. Still, there are only the plastic dummies. John looks under the stalls for feet, but sees none. As he straightens, he catches movement out of the corner of his eye. He jerks his head up, to see a dummy staring right at him. _That wasn't doing that before_, he thinks. It takes a halting step forward. "Right you got me. Very funny," John says as he starts to back down the aisle again slowly. Three more start to move as well.

John closes his eyes hard, pinches himself, and looks back up. Unfortunately, the dummies are still moving towards him. John continues to back up. "Right I've got the joke. Very funny. Is this a staff thing? 'Cause I'm not finding it funny." He keeps backing up, but is suddenly stopped by the hard feel of plastic gripping his shoulders. He looks over his shoulder; a fourth dummy has a tight hold of him and he can't break free. John looks back to the three dummies heading towards him, which now number six. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." The lead mannequin raises its arm, and John closes his eyes, waiting for the blow.

Suddenly, a small hand slipped into his. He looks to his right. A short, blond young woman grins at him and tugs. "Run!" she said.

With an almighty jerk, John managed to tug free of the dummy holding him and follows the mysterious girl. She doesn't look older than twenty. The mannequins ran after them. The girl leads John to a service lift and jumped in. He blindly went in after her, the dummies close behind. The girl pulls out a strange-looking metal device and flicks it on. It made a whirring sort of noise and the lift doors started to close, but not before a dummy slipped an arm through to stop them.

John was pressed against the back of an elevator, wondering how the day could get any stranger. Who was this girl? Right then, she had a hold of the arm and was tugging on it roughly, as if trying to pull it off. But she didn't quite have the height to get the leverage. John went over to help, and together, it came off and the doors closed as the lift began its descent. John backed up again, leaving the girl holding the arm newly without a body.

"We just pulled his arm off," John stated the obvious.

"Yep! Plastic!" the girl said cheerfully.

John shook his head. "Very clever, nice trick. Who were they then, staff? Students? Is this a student thing or what?"

The girl looked back at him quizzically. "Why would they be students?"

John blinked. "I don't know."

"Well you said it. Why students?" she asked again.

"Cause to get that many people dressed up and being silly," John took a deep breath, "they have to be students."

The girl grinned at him. "That makes sense, well done."

John stared at her. That was a bit patronizing. "Thanks," he said somewhat sarcastically.

"They're not students." She turned back around to face the doors.

"Whoever they are, when the staff finds them, they're going to call the police," John tried.

"I already evacuated everyone. Said there was a gas leak," she replied. "You were the only one daft enough to miss the announcement."

John opened his mouth to protest or reply in some manner, but the lift doors opened just then. The girl went out and once again he followed. "Mind your eyes," she said, and pointed her metal thing at the controls again. They sparked, and John had to close his eyes.

That was it. "I've had enough of this now," John blurted. "Who are you, then? And for that matter, what was that upstairs?" The girl started moving quickly down the hall they were in and John followed, looking for answers. "I said, what was that?" He was really getting annoyed with this mysterious young girl ignoring him.

Finally, she began to talk, though John almost wished she hadn't. "They're made of plastic. Living, plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." She turned around right as they reached a door and held up a square, metal device that had a blinking light on it and some wires. John thought it looked like a bomb.

_Wait. Plastic? Bomb?_

But the girl continued. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go have a drink and forget this ever happened." She tossed him the plastic arm, which he caught by reflex. "Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed." She disappears back into the building. John just stood there, and his mouth may have been hanging open slightly. Not a moment later, the girl reappeared.

"I'm the Wolf by the way what's your name?" she asked.

"J-John," he stuttered.

The girl gave him the widest grin he'd ever seen, tongue poking slightly out of the corner of her mouth. "Nice to meet you John. Run for your life!" And with that, she was gone.

John bewilderedly began to walk away. He crossed the street, hardly aware when a black cab nearly ran him over and the driver yelled at him to watch where he was going. He stopped to look back once making it to the sidewalk, and just then, the top floor of Henrick's exploded. Fire shot out of the building, which quickly became engulfed. People panicked all around him, but John could only stare. Eventually, he came to his senses and ran all the way back to his apartment without looking back, throwing the plastic arm the girl had given him into a dumpster along the way.

John didn't sleep that night.

* * *

**AN: Hello to those who read this story! This is my first foray into writing fanfic, and my first time letting anybody outside of a couple very close friends see any of my work. As a senior pre-med university student, my life is extremely hectic, and I don't have any free time. So if anybody actually likes this story, sorry in advance for updates being few and far between. I will try to write as often as possible, and I won't give up on this. Feel free to review if you wish. **


	2. The Wolf

**AN: Second chapter dealing with the middle part of the first episode. I was going to give you the rest of the first episode, but it just got way too long.**

**And when we get to the brief description of the Wolf, it's not the blonde Rose we're used to. This is the war torn regeneration. She is gonna be a little darker, leading to dark hair, get up similar to the 9****th**** doctor, etc. I feel like just as the 10****th**** doctor was designed for Rose, we wouldn't get a Rose-y looking Wolf until John has healed her somewhat from the War and she regenerates after season 1.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not going to do these for every single chapter I write. I think everybody reading fanfic knows it's fanfic for a reason.**

* * *

_Previously:__ The lead mannequin raises its arm, and John closes his eyes, waiting for the blow. _

_Suddenly, a small hand slipped into his. He looks to his right. A short, blond young woman grins at him and tugs. "Run!" she said._

"_I'm the Wolf by the way what's your name?" she asked._

"_J-John," he stuttered._

_The girl gave him the widest grin he'd ever seen, tongue poking slightly out of the corner of her mouth. "Nice to meet you John. Run for your life!" And with that, she was gone._

_John didn't sleep that night._

* * *

The Wolf

John called in sick the next morning. It seemed the appropriate thing to do, given the events of the night before. John wasn't entirely sure what he thought of said events, but he knew that he was intrigued by the young brunette who had undoubtedly saved his life. Who was she, and what kind of a name was Wolf? Nobody named their kids that. She had looked so young, but she spoke with such authority and moved with assurance. She had known exactly what to do in a dangerous and potentially deadly situation.

John wondered if she'd even made it out of the building last night. It had blown up from the top floor just a couple minutes after he left. No one was that fast. John couldn't get her out of his head. She was strange, but he hoped she had made it out before the shop blew. She'd saved him, and apparently everyone else in the building. No one deserved to die like that.

A rattling at the door interrupted his thoughts. _Damn_. He thought he'd nailed that cat flap down weeks ago. Strays were always coming in, and he wasn't exactly a cat person. He went to the door, and was surprised to see nails scattered around the flap. He had done it. That must be one strong cat to have broken through. Or a desperate one.

Just then, the flap moved again. John knelt down to look through it. He pushed it open, only to see the Wolf girl staring back at him. _No way_, he thought. He jumped upright and pulled the door open.

The Wolf stared at him in confusion. "What are you doing here?" she asked rudely.

John stared back. "I live here."

"Well, what'd you go and do that for?"

Now it was John's turn to be rude. "'Cause I do. And I'm only at home because I thought almost being killed twice last night warranted a day off from work."

The girl – the Wolf – John reminded himself, looked down at her blue metal device thing. "I must have got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?" She reached high up to rap him on the forehead. "Nope, bonehead. Bye, then!" She turned to go.

_Not so fast_.

John grabbed her wrist before she could leave. "You. Inside. Right now." He shut the door and towed her to the kitchen.

"Don't mind the mess. Do you want tea?" he asked. He might as well try to be polite. He didn't want her swanning off before he got some answers.

"Might as well. Two sugars, thanks!" the Wolf replied brightly.

John began heating the water while the Wolf wandered around his apartment. John tried to start slowly. "I think we should go to the police, yeah? I mean, the news last night said no one was injured, which is a miracle, I don't know how you did that. But how did you get out? I mean, the top floor blew up. No one would have had time to get out, and no offense, but you're tiny." John continued to ramble while he set the tea bags in the mugs.

Unbeknownst to him, the Wolf wasn't paying any attention at all. His living area was far too interesting. She picked up a newspaper and saw a marriage announcement. "Hmph. That won't last. He's gay and she's an alien." She set it down and picked up a book. "Medical. Doctor, then." The Wolf picked up John's mail from the day before. "Doctor John Smythe. Point to me," she grinned.

Just then, the Wolf caught a look at herself in the mirror. "Ah, could've been worse. I could have been ginger again. But look how short I am!" She shrugged. "Dark hair is nice."

John came in carrying two cups of tea. "I want you to explain everything."

The Wolf heard skittering across the floor. "What's that then? Have you got a cat?" she asked.

John looked at her. "No. I nailed the flap shut, there's strays. But I heard something come through earlier. That wasn't you?"

The Wolf shook her head and went to look at the cat flap. John looked behind the couch, and was suddenly attacked by the plastic arm from the night before. It wrapped it's hand around his throat and squeezed. John fell backwards and landed on the table, smashing it. He grabbed it and jerked, but the hand didn't budge, and he was quickly running out of air.

The Wolf heard the crash and ran back to the living room. She saw John struggling with the arm and dashed to help. After some tugging, she managed to pull the arm away from his throat and stuck her metal device into the palm of its hand. With a whirring noise, the device activated, and the arm stopped moving.

John was gasping for breath. "I chucked that last night! What's it doing here?"

"It's alright, I've stopped it." The Wolf grinned and tossed him the arm, making John flinch. "There you go, see? 'Armless."

John gave her look. "Do you think?" He hit her lightly on the shoulder with it.

"Ow!" The Wolf rubbed her arm and mock glared at him before taking off.

John followed the Wolf out the door, not even bothering to lock his apartment behind him. "Hold on a minute! You can't just go swanning off!"

The Wolf started down the stairs. "Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See ya!"

John wasn't giving up. "That arm was moving again. It tried to kill me!"

The Wolf snorted. "Right good observer you are. Ten out of ten."

"You can't just walk way. You have to tell me what's going on," John said.

"No, I really don't." The Wolf reached the ground and started walking away quickly.

John followed her yet again. He couldn't give this up. She was fascinating, and unlike anyone he'd ever met. "Fine then. I can go to the police. You said if I told people, they'd get killed. So, start talking," he bluffed.

The Wolf turned back to him. "Was that supposed to sound tough?" she asked.

John shrugged. "Sort of." The Wolf shook her head.

"Doesn't work." She continued walking away.

"But, who are you?" John asked, walking next to her now.

"I told you, the Wolf."

"No, but, what Wolf? Or Wolf what?"

A bit of frustration crept into her voice. "Just…the Wolf."

"The Wolf?" John said skeptically.

The Wolf grinned that tongue-touched grin and waved. "Hello!"

John shook his head. "Is that supposed to sound impressive?"

The Wolf shrugged and smiled. "Sort of."

John didn't even know where the Wolf was headed, but he was glad she was finally talking to him, albeit cryptically. "But come on then. You can tell me. I think I've seen enough. You're obviously not the police."

"No, I was just passing through. I'm a long way from home." She looked a little wistful at that, but it was replaced quickly and John let it slide. He was still looking for answers anyways, like whether or not he should be worried about dying anytime soon.

"So, what did I do? Why do those plastic things keep coming after me?"

The Wolf looked up at him with eyebrows raised. "Oh, the entire world revolves around you? You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all," she explained.

"It did try to kill me."

"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, didn't blunder back out, and almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was looking for me. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cause you met me." That was the straightest answer he'd gotten out of her yet.

John grinned. "So what you're saying is the entire world revolves around you?" he teased.

The Wolf grinned back. "Sort of, yeah."

"You're full of it," he chuckled.

"Sometimes!" she said cheerfully.

John got serious again. "But all these plastic things running around. Who else knows about them?"

The Wolf looked down. "No one."

"What, you're on your own?" he asked, looking at her. She looked devastated all of a sudden, but again the emotion left her face quickly.

"Well, who else is there?" the Wolf said defensively. "I mean, you lot, all you do is drink, go to bed, and watch football on telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on. Someone has to save all of you." The Wolf made to move on.

John grabbed her by the wrist, slowing her down. "Okay. Start from the beginning."

* * *

"Okay, so if we're going with the living plastic idea, and I don't know why, but I believe you, how did you kill that arm thing?" John asked the Wolf.

"The thing controlling it projected life into the arm. I cut off the signal, ergo, dead," she replied.

John was trying to wrap his head around the whole thing. "So…radio control?"

The Wolf shook her head. "Thought control." She looked at him. "You alright?"

"Yeah," John replied a little quickly. "So who is controlling it?"

"That's a long story."

"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? They're not gonna get very far with plastic creatures; what, they want to take over Britain's shops?" John managed a grin.

The Wolf chuckled. "No. It's not a price war." She got serious. "They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you." She looked at him. "Do you believe me?"

John stared at her with wide eyes. "I don't know."

"But you're still listening." The Wolf half smiled and began to walk off, while John stayed put.

"Really though, Wolf. Who are you?" John called out.

The Wolf looked at him, then turned and walked back. "Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid." She took his hand. "The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth." The Wolf stared at the ground intensely, and John got the strange feeling that the ground was rotating under his feet. "The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go -" The Wolf dropped his hand, and it fell limply to his side. She looked up at him. "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Doctor John Smythe. Go home."

John was left staring dizzily at the Wolf as she walked away alongside an empty playground, not once looking back. The only thing nearby was an old, unused Police Phone Box leftover from the 50's. Eventually, he turned and started back towards his apartment, still in a daze.

Suddenly, a strange, grating or wheezing noise rang through the air. Attuned to out of place occurrences since meeting the Wolf, John turned and ran back to where he'd last seen her. She was nowhere in sight, and neither was the blue box, although John barely noticed that.

* * *

John had forgotten about the mess that had been left behind after the plastic arm attack. He cleaned up, threw the bits of shattered table into the dumpster, and then just sat in his apartment, nearly overwhelmed by the last 24 hours. He didn't even know how to begin to process this interruption to his normal routine, but for some reason, he had never felt so energetic. He had never been as scared, or had such an adrenaline rush, or felt so thrilled to be around someone as he had with the Wolf. She just seemed so full of spark and life, although there were times when she had gotten quiet and John had seen darker emotions run across her face.

John wanted to know more about her. He felt a need to know more about her. But she didn't even have a real name. Nevertheless, the internet was always a good place to start these days. John grabbed his laptop from his bedroom and opened a search engine. At that, he hit a wall. Just typing in the Wolf gave him over fifty million results. John scoffed. He should have known that wouldn't be good enough, it was an animal for God's sake.

John typed in THE WOLF – LIVING PLASTIC, and got Wolf's Plastic Surgery as a top hit. He shook his head. He was getting nowhere. He set the computer aside to make some tea. As the tea kettle began to whistle, John was reminded of the strange wheeze he had heard shortly after the Wolf had left him. Just then, he remembered the odd Police Box standing on the corner. He had never seen that before near his home. And then it was just gone. He wasn't half certain he hadn't imagined it. But he went back to his laptop and typed in THE WOLF – BLUE BOX, and got a surprising result.

A website popped up reading, **HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN?** John clicked on it, and was immediately presented with a photo of the Wolf. She was dressed exactly as he had seen her the day before. But the picture was black and white. And it was at the motorcade in Texas where John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in 1963. _That can't be right_, John thought. _Could that be her mother?_ No that couldn't be it either.

This woman was making less and less sense. John just stared at the picture of the Wolf for a few minutes before noticing a phone number for a guy named Clive at the bottom of the web page and picked up the phone. First, he made an appointment to see Clive the next day after convincing him that he was not a practical joker. Then, he called his friend, Michael, who happened to own a car, something John did not see the point of, and asked for a ride.

* * *

Michael grumbled the whole way there the next morning. "How do you know this guy ain't some serial killer? Huh, John?" he asked.

John rolled his eyes. "Mike, I'm a pretty big guy, I think I can take care of myself. Or do you want to come in with me and find out?" he teased.

Mike shook his head. "No way man. You're the nutter in this friendship." He pulled to a stop across the street. "You know he's insane too right? No way this girl or whatever was alive back in the 60's if she's as young as you say she is."

"I'm curious Mike. She's not like anyone I've ever met. Even if this guy is a nutter, doesn't mean he doesn't know something," John didn't really know why he was here. If he wanted to see the Wolf again, he should have just gone and found a shop with mannequins and waited for them to attack him. But this seemed a little less drastic. Who knew if she'd even be there to stop them that time. So, John went to talk to Clive instead.

"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive. I couldn't just send it to you," Clive was saying as he and John entered a shed. "People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. But if you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Wolf keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just the Wolf. Always the Wolf. And the title seems to have been passed down. As if between alphas of a wolf pack." He pointed to the picture of the motorcade. "That's your Wolf there, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's her," John replied. "But she looked exactly like this yesterday. No way it can be the same girl."

"Ah, but we can go even further back. Look. April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton. And friend." John saw the Wolf, still in her modern clothes despite the era. "This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic, and for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived." Clive flipped to another photo, this one just a copy of a sketch. "And here we are. 1883. Another Wolf. And look, it's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded." Clive shook his head. "The Wolf is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, she's there, and she brings howling in her wake. And she has one constant companion."

John narrowed his eyes, still looking at the sketch. "Who's that then?"

"Death," Clive answered. John finally looked up from the photo. "If the Wolf's back, John, if you've seen her, then only one thing's for certain. We are all in danger." He paused, then went on. "If the Wolf's making house calls, then God help you."

"But who is she?" John asked. "Who do you think she is?"

"I think she's the same woman. I think she's immortal. I think she's an alien from another world," Clive said seriously.


	3. Welcome Aboard

**A/N: Okay, here's the last part of the first episode. It's nearly as long as the first two chapters combined, so have fun!**

**And in response to a review I got, I don't know if I have enough creativity or writing skill yet to come up with an entirely new episode and make it good, but I will definitely think about it. I have thought about doing interludes between the regular chapters, sort of stories of after the adventures. So you may be getting one of those next.**

* * *

_Previously: She got serious. "They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you." She looked at him. "Do you believe me?"_

_John stared at her with wide eyes. "I don't know."_

"_But you're still listening." The Wolf half smiled._

_She was nowhere in sight and neither was the blue box, although John barely noticed that._

_This woman was making less and less sense. _

"_But who is she?" John asked. "Who do you think she is?"_

"_I think she's the same woman. I think she's immortal. I think she's an alien from another world," Clive said seriously._

* * *

Welcome Aboard

"All right, he's a nutter." John said to Mike as he got into the car. "Off his head. Complete online conspiracy freak. You win!" He plopped down on the seat. "So we've got the whole afternoon left before you have to get back to your girlfriend. I'd like a pizza. I'll buy – least I can do for making you drive all the way out here. Whatcha think?" he asked.

Mike was grinning. "Pizza! P-p-pizza!"

"Or I don't know. I could actually use some kind of drink, the last couple days I've had," John wavered.

But Mike said "Pizza!" again, quite loudly.

John looked at him. He was acting a bit odd. "Alright mate. Your choice. Whatever you want."

* * *

"I don't know Mike. Maybe I'm full of it. I mean, what am I doing, practically stalking some young woman I met two days ago? Sure, she was fascinating, but – I don't know…maybe I should just forget the whole thing. Go back to the hospital, do my job, stick to what I'm good at." John shook his head. That seemed like the smart thing to do, but the more he thought about it, the less appealing it seemed.

Mike leaned forward. "So, where did you meet this Wolf?" he asked abruptly.

"I'm sorry, was I talking about me for a second?" John glared.

"'Cause I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was she something to do with that?" Mike persisted.

"Mike I told you about this, remember? I told you about her and the shop." John was starting to get antsy. Now that he was really looking at his friend, he looked a little…off. Shiny, sort of.

"Come on," Mike cajoled. "What was she doing there?"

"I'm not gonna keep going on about it, Mike." John didn't know what was up, but his friend was acting too strange.

Mike kept grinning. "But you can trust me, mate. Friend – mate – friend. You can tell me stuff. Tell me about the Wolf and what she's planning and I can help you John. 'Cause that's all I want to do mate – friend."

John stared at Mike. Forget strange, something _veery,_ very weird was going on. "What are you on Mike?"

"Your champagne?" a waitress asked.

Mike kept staring at John. "We didn't order any champagne. Where's the Wolf John?"

The waitress went over to John. "Sir, your champagne."

"Sorry miss, it's not ours." John waved her away without looking. "That's it Mike. I really don't know what is up with you, but I've had enough. Thanks for the ride today, I'll see you later when you're not high, or, whatever." John moved to stand up, but Mike grabbed his arm, and that's when John knew what had happened. Mike had the same plastic grip that had held him still two nights ago in Henrick's. Plastic Mike forced him to stay sitting. "Oh, my God…"

"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?" The waitress was persistent.

Plastic Mike finally ran out of patience. "Look, we didn't order it," he snarled, looking up. Then his face spread into a grin as he let go of John's arm. John immediately stood. "Ah, gotcha," Mike said in triumph, staring at the insistent girl.

John looked over at the waitress and did a double take when he saw the Wolf grinning back at him with her tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth again. "Don't mind me," she said cheerfully. "Just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" The Wolf shook the champagne bottle hard before aiming it at Plastic Mike and uncorking it.

The cork flew like a bullet and landed square in the middle of Plastic Mike's forehead. John stared as the plastic dummy of his friend absorbed the cork, and then spat it back out of his mouth. His hand turned into a bludgeoning sort of weapon. The entire restaurant was quiet, all staring at the commotion at John's table. "Did you like that?" Plastic Mike asked no one in particular, then started smashing tables. People started screaming and running around frantically.

When Plastic Mike turned his back on her to decimate another table and frighten its occupants, the Wolf leapt onto his back and wrapped an arm around his neck. The dummy flailed, but could not dislodge her.

John, until this point observing dumbly, came to his senses and pulled a nearby fire alarm. "Out! Everybody out! Just get out, go!" he yelled. The restaurant occupants managed to gather their wits and flee the building. John turned back to the Wolf and his dummy friend, and saw the girl jerking on the neck of the plastic creature. John was reminded of two nights ago in the lift, and was only mildly surprised when the Wolf finally leapt off of Plastic Mike's back with his head firmly in her grasp.

The head opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Don't think that's gonna stop me," it warned. The now headless body continued to flail around, causing general mayhem.

"Come on, John!" the Wolf yelled, and John followed her through the kitchens towards a back exit, the dummy body following close behind, having picked their so-called "scent" back up.

The Wolf held open the back door for John, and he held it closed while she pointed her metal device at it. The device must have locked the door, because when Plastic Mike rammed the door a few seconds later, he could pound away on it, but it refused to open.

John backed away from the door quickly, as frightened as he'd been two nights ago. They were in a closed off alley, and he ran to the door in the gate, only to find it locked as well. "Open the gate!" he cried. "Use your metal lighty up thing!"

The Wolf held up her device. "Sonic screwdriver," she said, and walked towards the middle of the alley, where the strange Police Box had returned. John hadn't even noticed it.

"Well, use it!"

"Nah," she drawled. "Tell you what! Let's go in here!" And she walked into the box.

John stared in disbelief. He ran to the box to yell at the crazy woman. "You can't hide inside a wooden box! He'll tear it to pieces!" He opened the doors so he could drag her out and make her unlock the gate. "Wolf!"

John took one look inside the box and backed out. _No. No, nope, uh-uh no….no._ He stared at the now closed doors, then peered around each corner. Then the back.

It was a Police Box. That was it. But that wasn't what it was on the inside.

The Wolf had not come out of the box while John tried to make sense of this new mystery. Finally, he went back in. "Wolf, he's going to follow us," he told her as he ran up the ramp to get to the middle of a very large room that had a bluish column going straight up that the Wolf was currently dancing around, flipping levers and attaching wires to Mike's plastic head.

"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door and believe me. They tried. Now give me a sec, I'm almost done." She continued attaching wires as she began to explain what she was doing. "You see, the arm was too simple, I couldn't get a signal. But the head's perfect. I can use this to trace the signal back to the original source." Finished, the Wolf turned to John, who was still standing near the ramp, looking around in awe. "Right then, that's done. Where do you want to start?"

John brought his eyes to hers. "Um, well, the inside's bigger than the outside." It was more a statement than a question.

"Yes."

"It's alien." Another statement. Statements were good. Made it seem like he was more in control of himself than he was.

"Yep!" The Wolf popped the P sound.

John was pretty sure he already knew the answer, but he had to ask. "Are you alien?"

The Wolf smiled. "Yeah." A flash of mischief crossed her face. "Is that alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," said John quickly. "I figured, you know?"

The Wolf grinned and looked up at the column with love. "It's called the TARDIS, this thing. Stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

John opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He closed it again after a few seconds.

"That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us," the Wolf chuckled.

John thought of something he wanted to know. "Did they kill him? Mike. Did they kill Mike?" he asked.

That made her pause. "I don't know," the Wolf said. "But I'm going to find him." A hard look came across her face. "Too many people have died," she muttered quietly.

John wasn't sure if he was supposed to have heard that, but the Wolf's statement confused him. She'd saved everybody at the shop, no one at the restaurant had been hurt, and she'd even managed to save him three times in the last three days. But now she stared at the floor, as if everyone had died. John decided he'd think about it later. Right now, he smelled something burning.

"Uh, Wolf? Mike's melting."

The Wolf looked up abruptly. "What?" John pointed behind her, and she turned. "Oh, no no no no no!" She dashed over and started pushing buttons and switching levers. The TARDIS shuddered, almost knocking John to the ground.

_What the hell?_ "What's happening!" John yelled.

"I'm following the signal!" the Wolf yelled as she ran around the column. "It's fading! No no no no no! Come on girl, almost there, almost there. Come on!" The TARDIS rattled again and the Wolf ran out the doors.

"Wolf!" John cried. "Plastic dummy, remember?" He followed her again, this time to pull her back into the safety of the blue box.

Instead, John stopped in his tracks when he was treated to a view of the Thames instead of a pizzeria. The Wolf was pacing ten feet away.

"I lost the signal! I got so close," she moaned.

"We moved. Does it fly?" he asked.

The Wolf paused her pacing to half-glare at him. "Disappears there reappears here. Your brain wouldn't understand," she criticized.

_Okay, rude when she's annoyed._ "If we're somewhere else, what about the headless body? Aren't you worried it will hurt someone running loose like that?" She had to have thought of that.

"It's fine. Melted with the body. Are you going to babble all night?"

_Still mad, still rude._ John looked out over the river. "I'm gonna have to tell his girlfriend." The Wolf looked at him strangely. He stared at her in disbelief. "Mike. My friend. I'm going to have to tell his girlfriend he's dead and you went and forgot about him?" He scoffed. "You were right. You are an alien."

The Wolf rolled her eyes. "I did not forget your friend, he may still be alive, I told you that if you would just listen, and even if I did forget him, it's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape on this planet, all right?" She said indignantly.

"All right?" John exclaimed.

"Yes! It is!" the Wolf yelled back. She crossed her arms defensively and looked out at the river.

John took his first good look at the Wolf since he'd met her. She'd never stood still long enough before. She was tiny. He'd noticed that the other day. A good eight inches shorter than him and he was barely over six feet. She looked like she was dressed for battle: combat boots, leather jacket, dark jeans, and black hair in a ponytail – almost predatory. And she'd mentioned people dying before, too many. John thought she looked like veterans he had seen from the war in the Middle East, but she was far too young to have ever been in a battle.

The Wolf was still staring stonily out at the water, arms crossed, as if to protect herself from the world. He cast around in his head for some way to defuse the tension. "If you're an alien, how comes you sound like you're from London?" he finally asked. She looked at him.

"Lots of planets have a London!" she said huffily. "Three hundred and thirty-two, if my counting's correct, and it is. You'd be surprised at how popular England is in the universe."

He shook his head, trying not to smile. "Why's you're spaceship a blue police box?"

That was the right question. He was rewarded when the Wolf grinned her tongue-touched grin while going over to pat her ship and said, "It's a telephone box. From the 1950s. It's a disguise." John grinned back.

"Okay. And the living plastic. Why is it here, besides the whole overthrow and destroy us scenario? Speaking of that, what's it got against us anyway?" John asked.

"Nothing, it loves you," the Wolf said cheerfully. "You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect! Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the War, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!"

"So, you got a way to stop it?"

The Wolf pulled a vial out of an inside pocket of her jacket. "Anti-plastic!" she said, shaking it.

"Anti-plastic?"

"Anti-plastic! But I've got to find it first. How do you hide something that big in a city this small?" she wondered, looking around.

_London is small?_ "What's hiding?" John asked.

"A transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every piece of plastic in this city. It would need a massive transmitter to boost that signal all over." The Wolf was still turning in spot, looking for it.

"Like a satellite dish?"

The Wolf was getting excited. "Yeah, metal, round, but so much bigger. Huge. And I was so close to finding it. It's close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible." She finally came to a stop with her back to the Thames, facing John.

John looked over her shoulder at the London Eye. _No way….huge, metal, circular, nearby…_

"What?" the Wolf asked.

John scratched his head, still trying to understand how a London landmark could be being used by alien forces to take over the world. He opened his mouth but no words came out. That seemed to be happening a lot recently.

The Wolf turned around, but turned right back to him. "What is it, what?"

"Well – " John gestured up and down at the Eye.

The Wolf turned around again, then looked at John with a big grin. "Fantastic!" she cried, and took off over the Westminster Bridge towards the Ferris wheel. John ran after her, quickly catching up. When they were midway across the bridge, the Wolf reached out her hand and grasped his, and they ran together. Her hand slipped into John's perfectly, like they were meant to run together.

"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables – "

John interjected. "The breast implants."

The Wolf gave him an amused look. "Anyway, we found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath." She went to look over the side of the bridge, and John went to the opposite edge. He spotted a manhole cover down near the water.

"Wolf!" he called. She came over. "What about down there," he pointed.

She smiled. "Looks good to me."

They ran down to the entrance and the Wolf pulled it open. Steam and an eerie red light came out as she lifted. The Wolf climbed down the ladder the hole revealed and John followed. They ended up in a large room underground, standing on a terrace while below, something growled.

John looked down. In large hole in the floor, a huge orange-yellow liquid-ish creature was roiling.

"The Nestene Consciousness," the Wolf said quietly. "That's it, inside the vat. A living, plastic creature."

_That is a real, proper alien_, John thought. "Well, what are you going to do? Tip the anti-plastic in?"

"No, I didn't come here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance." The Wolf walked up to the railing.

John supposed that the Consciousness hadn't killed anyone yet, though not for lack of trying. Maybe the Wolf could get it to leave? How did that thing move around anyway? The Wolf started to speak, interrupting his thoughts.

"I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation," she said powerfully.

There was a short growling. "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?" The creature made a sort of beckoning motion, and the Wolf started down towards it. Just then, John spotted another person down on the level the Wolf was heading to, and ran behind her to his friend.

"Mike! Mike, it's me." Mike whimpered and grabbed onto his arm. "It's okay. It's alright."

Mike pulled his arm to turn him towards the Consciousness. "That thing down there, the liquid. John, it can talk!"

John smiled. "It's going to be okay, Mike." He looked over at the Wolf, who had been watching with a small smile. "Wolf, they kept him alive. Though I gotta say man, you stink."

"Yeah, told you that was a possibility, didn't I?" the Wolf said airily. "Keep him alive to maintain the copy." She continued down. John walked a few feet away from Mike to a railing so he could watch the Wolf.

"Am I addressing the Consciousness?" Another growl. "Great! If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?" The Wolf grinned at her own pun.

John was surprised when the liquid in the vat formed an angry looking face and then growled loudly at the Wolf. She wasn't intimidated in the least. "Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights." The loudest and angriest noise yet came from the vat. "I am talking!" The Wolf yelled, and the creature quieted down. "This planet is just starting. These tiny little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go."

For a second, John thought that the alien might actually listen to the Wolf. But then, two plastic dummies appeared from a dark corner and moved towards her. "Wolf!" he called in warning, but he was too late. Just as she turned, they grabbed her, one to each arm, and held her still. The Wolf tried to break free, but John knew those dummies were strong. One reached over and pulled the vial of blue anti-plastic out of the pocket of her leather jacket. The Consciousness started growling uncontrollably, louder than the Wolf, who tried to speak to it.

"That was just insurance. I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy, I swear I'm not." She paused to listen. "What do you mean?"

A sound made John turn back. A door slid open to reveal the Wolf's TARDIS. For the first time, the Wolf looked truly frightened. "No. No. Honestly, no." A growl. "Yes, that's my ship." A series of angry noises. "That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world, I couldn't save any of them!" the Wolf yelled desperately.

_What war could destroy whole planets? And how could she have fought in such a war, she's too young._ But the alien was still making lots of loud noises that John had figured out was its way of speaking, and drew him from his thoughts.

"What's it doing?" John asked.

"It's the TARDIS!" the Wolf yelled. "The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, John! Just get out, now!" She struggled again to pull free, but couldn't.

John was frozen. He couldn't leave the Wolf, but what could he do? He didn't know anything about aliens.

Bolts of energy started shooting from the Consciousness, and the whole underground room shuddered.

"It's the activation signal. It's transmitting!" the Wolf cried. "Get out John! Take Mike and get out!" She yanked futilely against the plastic dummies.

The stairs leading up to the manhole collapsed behind him, and John came to a decision. "Not happening," he muttered to himself. He turned to his friend. "Mike, look." John pointed at the TARDIS. "You see that blue box there? Run and wait there. Just, wait for us there."

"Just leave her!" Mike yelled. "There's nothing you can do!" He tried to grab John, but he pulled away.

"No, 'cause you see, I've got a job, but I haven't got a future. I've got no one, no family, no real friends besides you, and I reckon she hasn't either. But I'll tell you what I can do. I can help her save the world for everyone else." John grinned, and ran down to the platform where the Wolf was being held. He broke a dummy's hold on her, and threw it into the vat. The second dummy, holding the anti-plastic, let go of the Wolf to grab John, and he tossed it over his shoulder into the Consciousness as well.

The throw ruined his balance, and he wavered on the edge of the platform, nearly going over, before a firm grasp caught him and pulled him back.

"John!" The Wolf held onto his arms until she was sure he was steady. They both looked over the edge to see the Consciousness start to explode. The Wolf grinned. "Now we're in trouble." The two ran to the TARDIS, which Mike was cowering against. The Wolf nudged him aside and unlocked the door. John dragged his friend inside, and the TARDIS dematerialized as the underground space blew up.

* * *

A wheezing sound filled an out of the way street as the TARDIS materialized. As soon as it landed, Mike ran out and tried to hide behind some pallets, terrified. John followed more calmly and grinned over at him. "Fat lot of good you were," he teased. Mike just stared at the TARDIS, eyes wide.

The Wolf followed John, but stopped at the doorway. "Nestene Consciousness? Easy." She snapped her fingers.

"You were useless in there," John said. "You'd be dead if it weren't for me." He smiled, though.

The Wolf was serious. "Yes I would. Thank you," she said sincerely, then brightened. "Right then, I'll be off! Unless," she shrugged, "I don't know. You could come with me." John swore he could hear a bit of hope in her voice. "This isn't just a London hopper you know. It goes anywhere in the universe, free of charge."

"Don't!" Mike interjected. "She's an alien! She might not even be a she!"

The Wolf glared at him. "He's not invited," she said pointedly. "Whatcha think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go…anywhere."

"Is it always this dangerous?" John asked.

The Wolf nodded with a grin. "Yeah."

John so desperately wanted to say yes. He'd never wanted anything so badly. But he had responsibilities that he couldn't ignore. Regretfully, he shook his head. "Yeah, no I can't…I've got my job at the hospital. People need me there – it's important work." He looked over at Mike. "And someone has to make sure that stupid lump gets home in one piece."

The Wolf nodded, but couldn't quite hide her disappointment. "Okay," she said. "See ya." She closed the TARDIS door quietly behind her, and the ship faded away.

John stared for a moment. He'd never seen the ship take off from the outside. Then he turned to Mike, trying to ignore the twisting in his gut that told him he'd made the wrong the decision. "Come on, Mike. Let's go," he said quietly. Mike was staring at the place where the TARDIS had been, eyes wide, mouth open. John rolled his eyes and pulled on Mike's arm. "Come on."

As they were walking down the street, John heard the wheezing again, signaling the return of the TARDIS. John turned, hardly daring to believe what he saw.

The Wolf popped her head out of the door. "By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?" she asked with nonchalance. She withdrew her head, but left the door open for him.

John grinned and looked at Mike. "See ya, mate," he said, and took off running to the blue box.

"But – " Mike said, but John never knew the end of that sentence as the TARDIS doors closed behind him, leaving his old world behind him.


	4. Interlude: Welcome to the TARDIS

**A/N: So, here is an interlude to the adventure, as promised. Little shorter, but I think interludes are. It's in the name. Thank you guys so much for the response I've gotten so far!**

* * *

"_Just leave her!" Mike yelled. "There's nothing you can do!" He tried to grab John, but he pulled away._

"_No, 'cause you see, I've got a job, but I haven't got a future. I've got no one, no family, no real friends besides you, and I reckon she hasn't either. But I'll tell you what I can do. I can help her save the world for everyone else." John grinned._

"_Right then, I'll be off! Unless," she shrugged, "I don't know. You could come with me."_

_John grinned and looked at Mike. "See ya, mate," he said, and took off running to the blue box. _

"_But – " Mike said, but John never knew the end of that sentence as the TARDIS doors closed behind him, leaving his old world behind him._

* * *

Interlude: Welcome to the TARDIS

John leaned against the TARDIS doors once they closed, a bit out of breath. The Wolf was doing her dance around the column in the middle of the room, sending the ship into the air once more. Once done, she turned to John and grinned.

"Welcome aboard, Doctor John Smythe!" she said with a contagious grin. "Or, rather, back aboard."

John gave an easy smile back. "Thanks."

The Wolf spread out her arms. "So! As you already know, this is the TARDIS. My ship, but she's also my home."

"I thought guys only called their vehicles 'she'," John said.

The Wolf raised her eyebrows. "Don't let her hear you call her a vehicle, John," she warned. "She may be a ship, but she is very much alive."

John's eyes widened. Living spaceships? "What?" he asked. "How is that – what?" _Not very articulate, there._

"She is a sentient being, just like you or me. And really doesn't take to being referred to as something like a car. Fair warning, stay on her good side."

John nodded, suddenly a bit frightened. "Noted." He looked up at the ceiling. "Sorry TARDIS." The lights flashed bright for a second, then turned back down to their normal hue.

The Wolf grinned. "She likes you. No one accepts her being alive so quickly, and no one ever talks to her besides me. You're good, John." She motioned to him, and he walked up the ramp through coral-looking pillars to the Wolf's side in the center of the room by the column.

"This is the console. These controls are what get the old girl dematerialized into the Vortex before rematerializing wherever I want to go," she explained.

John eyed the "controls". Buttons were scattered along the surface, none of them labeled, along with a multitude of levers, and what John was pretty sure was a videogame joystick. Then his mind caught up with the second half of her explanation.

"Vortex? What is that?" he asked.

"The Space-Time Vortex, Time Vortex, or, just the Vortex," the Wolf clarified. "It's a sort of wormhole that exists outside of the relative space-time continuum, where normal physics do not apply. It was created by the – " she faltered for a second, "an ancient alien species for their use. The TARDIS is one of the only machines that can utilize it," she finished proudly.

"What else can?" John asked.

"Oh, you know, you're basic vortex manipulator, though I wouldn't recommend one of those. Nasty, dreadful things. So inelegant," the Wolf said haughtily.

_Ha, she's a snob about how she travels._ Although, now that he thought about it, who wouldn't be when they had something like the TARDIS? Bigger on the inside, and all that.

"Now, would you like a tour? Or straight on to another adventure? I expect you're tired, with life all exciting around you past couple days. Whatcha think?" the Wolf asked.

John smiled. "Tour sounds great." The Wolf grinned and motioned for him to follow her down a hallway he hadn't noticed before. "How big is the TARDIS anyway?" he asked.

The Wolf looked back over her shoulder. "Even I don't know for sure. She's always rearranging and hiding or revealing new rooms. Keeps things exciting. She gets bored easily, you see."

They continued down various halls until John was entirely lost. The Wolf showed him a large library with multiple stories filled with books, and lots of alcoves with comfortable looking armchairs and sofas. Some of these set apart areas had fireplaces, one space had a large pool.

When John asked why a pool was in a library, the Wolf replied, "Why not? Is it a bad place for a pool? Better than in some tiled room like a high school, all smelling of chlorine and other disgusting chemicals. I much prefer the smell of books, don't you?" The logic didn't quite make sense, but John had to agree with her.

There were multiple gardens. Some were filled with flowers, there was a tropical feel to one of them, and one was entirely filled with rocks of many colors and a stream running through it. Many doors the Wolf just walked past, telling him that if a door didn't open on his first try, to just leave it alone. John easily accepted that there were some rooms where he would not be welcomed. He was sure the Wolf wanted time to herself, and he had the feeling she was a very private creature.

The wardrobe room was fascinating. Three levels of clothes stuffing racks, separated according to time and world of origin. John grinned. "I guess you really are a girl," he told the Wolf.

She elbowed him, replying, "Oi! I'll have you know the TARDIS tends to collect these items over the years, she is in fact a girl as well, and she doesn't like to get rid of anything!" The Wolf glared at him, and John burst into laughter. The Wolf tensed, then relaxed and giggled slightly as well.

"Come on," she said, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him out. "Let's get you a room so you can stop laughing at me and go to sleep." She shook her head. "Humans. Sleep away half your lives."

"What, and you don't sleep?" John asked.

"Superior biology, me. Don't need much."

John processed that. There were bound to be differences between him and her. The Wolf was much stronger than she looked, for being so tiny, and he got the feeling that she was vastly more intelligent than he was.

The Wolf brought him to a normal-looking door at the end of a hallway. "So. The console room is that way," she said, pointing down the hall. "Just keep going straight 'til you hit it. Kitchen, take your first right, then it's the swinging doors second on your left. Typically, I'll be in one of those places, or the library I showed you, which is your second right, third left, first left, four doors down on the right. If you still can't find me, ask the TARDIS, sometimes she can help point you in the right direction."

John nodded, not following any of those directions. He had a feeling he was going to be asking the TARDIS a lot of questions. That was another problem in and of itself. How could the ship answer him? Not like she had a mouth.

"Without further ado," the Wolf said, opening the door, "here is your room." John walked in and grinned. It looked like his room back home, just a little more posh, with items he wished he'd had, but couldn't afford, an amazing looking bed, and an attached bathroom with an awesome stone tiled shower. The floor had paneling made of some sort of dark wood, nearly black, with comfortable looking thick rugs scattered around. There were numerous empty shelves of the same dark wood, waiting to be filled, and the bed matched the color as well. Everything had a sort of rustic feel to it.

John was awestruck. "This – is amazing," he said. "I've never seen something this nice."

The Wolf looked surprised as well. "Yeah she went all out, didn't she?"

"Thank you, Wolf," John said sincerely, turning to look at her. She just shook her head.

"Don't thank me. Thank the TARDIS. She's the one that designed it. I told you she's always rearranging." The Wolf looked at him thoughtfully, as if trying to work out a puzzle. "She must really like you. It's nearly as nice as mine, and she only met you a day ago. She's been with me for years."

"Well, that's good. I can't imagine what an angry TARDIS would do." The Wolf shuddered a bit, making John grin. "Thanks, TARDIS," he said. The lights flashed again.

The Wolf turned to go. "I'll just leave you to it, then. When you wake up, go ahead and eat whatever you want in the kitchen, just make sure you leave me a banana. Then come find me and we'll figure out where to go!"

John nodded. "Will do. And thanks, Wolf. You know, for bringing me along and everything."

"You're welcome." The Wolf smiled, and left.

John closed the door quietly, then fell into the most comfortable mattress he'd ever felt. He wanted to try out the shower, but without any sleep the night before, even with practice with that as a doctor, the excitement had finally caught up with him and he was exhausted. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

* * *

"What do you see in him love?" the Wolf asked her TARDIS once she was alone. "Or are you just thrilled I'm not on my lonesome anymore?" Lights flashed above her. She shook her head. "Don't get used to him. I only brought him along 'cause he saved my life. Although, he did handle the idea of aliens fairly well," she admitted. "But as soon as he sees some real aliens, he'll go scarpering back home, trust me," the Wolf warned her ship. "And it'll be you an' me again. Like it should be," she added, trying to ignore the voice in her mind that told her she didn't want to be on her own anymore, and that John could be the reason why.

The Wolf shook herself. She was better off on her own. That was what she deserved, and John or any other human couldn't change that. With that last thought directed at the TARDIS, the Wolf walked down the hall to do some repairs under the console while waiting for her new companion to wake up. She knew just where she'd take him next.

* * *

**A/N: Ooo, two notes. In response to two reviews, I make no promises, but I will attempt to come up with a fully fleshed out original chapter, although it may be a while. So 'til then, the story will be based on the season 1 episodes, but I will do my best to throw in some personal flair. I do have some ideas I'm excited about for some of the episodes, although others are giving me trouble.**


	5. Plus One

_Previously: The Wolf spread out her arms. "So! As you already know, this is the TARDIS. My ship, but she's also my home."_

_John grinned. "I guess you really are a girl," he told the Wolf._

"_Come on," she said, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him out. "Let's get you a room so you can stop laughing at me and go to sleep." She shook her head. "Humans. Sleep away half your lives."_

_What do you see in him love?" the Wolf asked her TARDIS. "As soon as he sees some real aliens, he'll go scarpering back home, trust me," the Wolf warned her ship. "And it'll be you an' me again. Like it should be," she added, trying to ignore the voice in her mind that told her she didn't want to be on her own anymore._

_She knew just where she'd take him next._

* * *

Plus One

"John! Console room!" came the yell from down the hall as John was finishing his breakfast the next morning. Thinking something was wrong, he quickly dropped his dishes in a sink and ran for the console room.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked the Wolf, who could only be seen from the knees down, as the rest of her was currently underneath the console, doing God only knew what with some wires. She scooted out from under the console to give him a glare.

"Humans! Sleeping away your life! What is the point?" she asked in frustration.

John was perplexed. "Well, when we don't get enough sleep, we do tend to get a little fuzzy around the edges – and stop functioning," he reasoned.

The Wolf humphed. "You're a doctor, shouldn't you be used to no sleep? Anyways, you're here now," she continued quickly, "so what do you say we get a move on, shall we?"

John smiled. "Fine by me," he said, finally earning a smile back from the odd alien.

"I know just where we're going Johnny boy," she said with delight, before pulling down a lever, sending them jerking off into the Time Vortex, John remembered.

They landed with a solid bump, nearly toppling John. The Wolf was unfazed. She turned to him. "So, John, whatcha think? Did we go backwards or forwards in time?" she asked.

"Forwards. Definitely forwards," he replied.

The Wolf tilted her head. "What makes you say that?"

"It's what I would have picked," John shrugged.

"Good choice," the Wolf said with approval. "Right you are John. Question is, how far?"

"I don't know…one hundred years?"

"That's a bit boring though, isn't it? One hundred years? Don't you want to go just a bit further?" the Wolf egged him on.

"Give the new guy a hint then."

"Alright. We're a bit past the New Roman Empire, which began in the year 12,000." The Wolf grinned that tongue-touched grin that John was starting to think was dangerous.

He couldn't help teasing her a bit. "You think you're so impressive."

"I am so impressive!" she replied indignantly, crossing her arms.

"You wish," John grinned.

"Right then, you asked for it. Go on, take a look outside, tell me whatcha think." The Wolf opened the doors of the TARDIS, and John stepped out – into a fairly normal looking room. If this was the future, the architecture sure hadn't changed much.

The Wolf had followed him out. He looked over at her. "You sure you got whatever the date is right? Because this looks like a museum back home," he joked.

"Oi! Cheeky fellow," she muttered. "I'll drop you back home, see if I don't," she said, not meaning it.

John started down some steps where there appeared to be a large metal screen blocking whatever the view was outside. "Where are we, then? What's out there?" he asked.

The Wolf pointed her sonic screwdriver at the shutter, and it shifted down, revealing a view of outer space, like nothing that John had ever seen. However, what amazed John was the view of the Earth that he was treated to, and what was creeping up on it. "That's Earth…but hold on. Why's the sun so close? Isn't it supposed to be hundreds of thousands of kilometers away?" he asked the Wolf.

The Wolf was quiet next to him for a moment, looking out over the world. "People. You spend all your time worrying about things that don't matter in the grand scheme of it all. The food you eat, the car you drive, the clothes you wear. And you spend so much of your time thinking about how you'll die, and through all of that – all that time, you never even stop to imagine the impossible, like maybe you survive. Maybe you live." She glanced at him, wanting to gauge his reaction to her next words, but turned back to the window like the coward she was, not wanting to see the disgust and fear sure to be on his face when she told him where she'd taken him. "This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty-six. We're five billion years in your future, relatively, and this is the day the sun expands." The Wolf paused, then continued. "Welcome to the end of the world," she said drily.

John vaguely heard a computerized voice stating that Earth death would occur in approximately fifty minutes, but was still reeling from everything the Wolf had said. Why had she brought him here? Was she here to save the Earth from destruction? That's what she had done just yesterday. He was lost in his thoughts, and the Wolf left him alone for a few minutes, before coming back.

The Wolf gently took him by the elbow and guided him down a corridor. John pulled out of his daze and recalled something the computer had said. "By guests, does it mean people?" he asked her.

"Depends on what you mean by people," the Wolf shrugged.

"Well, until yesterday, I meant people. Now, I guess I should mean aliens?" he said in a questioning tone. "But then, why are they here, what is all this for?"

"We're on a kind of observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn," the Wolf said sarcastically.

"Why?" John asked.

"Fun. And mind you, when I say the great and the good, I mean the rich."

The two reach another room with what John would have thought was a fantastic view of space, apart from the ever increasing glow of the sun reaching for his home. "I thought the sun expanding would take thousands of years," he wondered.

"Millions, actually," the Wolf corrected, "but this agency called the National Trust bought the planet up ages ago. Keeping it preserved, you know, continents shifted back to how you're used to seeing them, and see those?" She pointed out some satellite hovering far above the Earth's surface. "Gravity satellites, holding back the sun."

"So why is the world being destroyed now, if this Trust agency wants to protect it?" John asked.

"Money's run out," was the simple reply. "And everything goes back to the natural order of things."

"Is that why you brought us here? To rescue the Earth at the last minute?"

The Wolf shook her head. "I'm not here to save the Earth. Not this time. Time's up."

"But what about all the people down there? Surely they wouldn't just leave the people to die," John worried.

"It's empty. They're all gone. No one left down there, they all moved on," the Wolf said brightly.

John nodded. At least no one would die today.

Suddenly, a blue skinned person with golden eyes dressed in formal clothes came out through a door John hadn't seen earlier. He was looking at some papers, but stopped in shock when he saw them. He quickly strode over to them.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked, sounding angry.

"Oh that's nice," said the Wolf disbelievingly. "Thanks."

"But how did you get in?" The alien still sounded flustered. "This is a maximum hospitality zone! The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

"That's me. I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation." The Wolf held up a wallet containing what looked like paper inside. "There, it's fine, you see? The Wolf plus one. I'm the Wolf, this is Doctor John Smythe. He's my plus one. Is that all right?" The Wolf grinned.

"Well, obviously," the blue man said, sounding appeased, if not entirely happy with the situation. "Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy."

John leaned over to the Wolf. "What did you just show him?" he asked.

The Wolf handed over the wallet. "The paper's psychic. Show's people whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time. Like just now, the Steward saw an invitation."

John nodded. "Okay, but that's not what it says now," he said, with a bit of a grin.

The Wolf snatched back the paper. "You have to be careful what you're thinking when you touch it John," she reprimanded. "Otherwise, who knows what might come up?"

"Right, sorry," John said. _Fairly certain I didn't come up with that._

The Steward interrupted. "We have in attendance the Wolf and Doctor John Smythe. Thank you. All staff to their positions." Smaller blue people, the size of children, scurried about, doing final preparations as the rest of the guests entered.

John zoned a little bit as all the important people were announced, and gifts were exchanged. He'd never been much good at these kinds of functions when he'd had to attend them as an employee of the hospital. Only a few stood out to him.

First, were three living, walking trees. The leader was a female named Jabe. She gave the Wolf a sapling, who handed it to John, before pulling out a few hairs from her head and giving those to Jabe. John wondered if there was significance to the exchange of hair. Another figure that caught John's eye was the creature that had sponsored the whole event, an alien called the Face of Boe. He was just a giant head in a jar. The Face of Boe didn't pass out gifts, as he was, technically, the host. John did end up holding another gift, a round metal ball given by people in cloaks, but he didn't catch the name. The Wolf gave them some hairs off John's head this time. He rubbed the sore spot, mock glaring at her while she gave him her tongue-touched grin.

Last to come in was a very odd looking being. John didn't even know what it was, until the Steward announced her as being the last Human, named the Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen.

John stared. She was just skin stretched across a rectangular frame with eyes and a mouth. Cassandra was the strangest thing he'd ever seen, and that was after the giant head and talking trees and blue people. And she was supposed to be a human?

"Truly, I am the last Human," Cassandra was saying. She had been talking while John tried to understand her existence. "My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye. Oh, no tears, no tears." A man in a white suit that had accompanied Cassandra dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils." _What?_ "Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity."

John walked around the back of Cassandra to see just how thin she was, while two servers wheeled out a juke box.

"According to the archives, this was called an iPod." _She can't be serious._ How could the future get things so wrong? "It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"

A server pressed a button, and Tainted Love started playing throughout the room.

"Refreshments will now be served," the Steward announced. "Earth Death in thirty minutes."

Wanting a chance to unwind and process everything he'd seen, John left the room as the guests started to mill around. He figured the Wolf would be able to find him fairly easily, and what trouble could he get into here anyway?

* * *

The Wolf watched John leave, not feeling satisfied at all that she was right in the fact that he couldn't handle the alien-ness of the whole event. Ignoring the fact that she'd told her TARDIS just the night before that she'd be better off once John left, the Wolf made to go after him, hoping to talk him through whatever he was thinking. She'd still drop him off at the end of this, but she could try to make it easier for him. The Wolf steadily ignored the other voice in her head that told her she wanted John to stay, that she wanted him to be able to deal with this. With her life and way of living it.

As the Wolf was walking through the room to follow John, Jabe suddenly stepped out in front of her.

"Wolf?" she asked. The Wolf looked at her, and a light from some machine Jabe was holding flashed, causing the Wolf to blink. "Thank you," Jabe said, and moved away.

The Wolf shook her head, putting the interaction aside for now, and left to find John. He couldn't have gone far.

* * *

Jabe looked down at her machine. It was twittering at her. "Identify species," Jabe commanded. The machine whirred a bit, but no results came up. "Please identify species," Jabe said a bit more forcefully. Still nothing, except for a bit of whining from the thing. "Now stop it," she said. "Identify her race. Where is she from?" Finally, her device spat out a name.

"That's impossible," Jabe whispered. She rushed away, not noticing a metal spider scurrying away along the roof above her.

* * *

**A/N: So I thought that I would pick a day of the week where I would update this story, as updating randomly is kind of making me freak out and want to spit everything out, and that means that I won't write well, or, at all. So Saturday was randomly picked as the day of uploading. This will hopefully mean that I get things out on schedule and can keep up. Maybe I'll even get ahead!**


	6. Species

_Previously: "We're five billion years in your future, relatively, and this is the day the sun expands." The Wolf paused, then continued. "Welcome to the end of the world," the Wolf said drily._

_John zoned a little bit as all the important people were announced, and gifts were exchanged._

_Last to come in was a very odd looking being. John didn't even know what it was, until the Steward announced her as being the last Human, named the Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen._

"_Identify her race. Where is she from?" Jabe commanded. Finally, her device spat out a name. "That's impossible," Jabe whispered. She rushed away, not noticing a metal spider scurrying away along the roof above her._

* * *

Species

John wandered after he left the room full of guests, holding the sapling and metal sphere that the Wolf had handed over to him. He wasn't too keen to go back in quite yet. Aliens aside, it was a bunch of rich people he had nothing in common with. Especially that so called "Last Human" woman. That Cassandra gave him the creeps. He eventually stopped at another observation window to watch the sun move inexorably closer to the Earth.

John wondered what had happened to the people. Were there any real humans left? Cassandra didn't count. She was just skin and ego. If there had been any humans, surely at least a couple would have come to watch the Earth die.

John's musings were interrupted by a blue alien like the Steward, not the small attendants, entering the hall. She looked like the Steward, but was dressed decidedly less formally, instead wearing coveralls and a baseball cap. They both started at the other's presence.

"Sorry," John said. "Am I allowed to be here?"

The woman looked around furtively before glancing at John. "You have to give us permission to talk," she said, looking back down.

John tilted his head in confusion. "Erm, you…have permission?" he said hesitantly.

The alien gave him a surprised but grateful smile. "Thank you," she said kindly. "And no, you're not in the way," she assured him. "Guests are allowed anywhere."

John nodded. "Okay."

The blue woman went over to a panel in the wall and opened it while John continued to watch her. "What's your name?" he finally asked.

"Raffalo," she replied.

"Raffalo."

"Yes, sir," Raffalo said. "I won't be long, I've just got to carry out some maintenance. There's a tiny little glitch in the Face of Boe's suite. There must be something blocking the system. He's not getting any hot water."

"So, you're a plumber," John said in surprise.

"That's right, sir."

"They still have plumbers?" _Wouldn't everything in the year five billion be sort of, automatic?_

Raffalo grinned. "I hope so, else I'm out of a job," she said cheerfully.

John couldn't help smiling back. Here was the first alien that seemed somewhat normal. Someone he could actually talk to, maybe get to know a bit.

"Where are you from?" he asked.

"Crespallion," Raffalo answered.

"Is that a planet?" Obviously John had never heard of it.

Raffalo smiled. "No. Crespallion's part of the Jaggit Brocade, affiliated to the Scarlet Junction, Convex fifty-six." She looked nervous for a second, then asked, "And where are you from, sir? If you don't mind me asking."

"No, not at all," John assured her. "I – " He almost blurted out Earth, but that would seem strange, seeing as it was basically about to blow up. "Erm, a long way away. I just sort of hitched a lift with this girl. Well, woman. Don't really know her. Only met her a few days ago," he sort of trailed off. He looked back at Raffalo. She was listening attentively. "Anyway, don't let me keep you. Good luck with it."

"Thank you sir." Raffalo turned to get back to work, but looked at him once more. "And er, thank you for the permission," she said a little nervously. "Not many people are that considerate."

John smiled at her. "Not at all. It was a pleasure meeting you." The two beings, alien to each other, shared one last smile before John moved away down the hall again. He entered a gallery with a large viewing window of the Earth where he sat down and took in the view once more.

He was too far away to hear Raffalo scream as several metal spiders dragged her into the conduit she'd been working on.

* * *

The Wolf was distracted from her search for John by the Steward's voice over the loudspeaker calling for the owner of the blue box to report to his office. She smirked when he restated that use of teleportation was strictly forbidden.

John would have to wait a few more minutes while she made sure her beloved TARDIS was handled with care.

* * *

"Earth death in twenty-five minutes," the computerized voice intoned to the private gallery.

"Oh, thanks," John said sarcastically, giving a glare at the ceiling. "Like I'd forgotten that bit of information." He sat himself down to the side of some steps, hanging his long legs over the edge. He set the sphere down, but hung onto the small tree.

John held up the sapling to his face, tilting it this way and that. "You know," he told it. " I have got a bonsai tree in a pot back home. That's a sort of plant. You guys might be related." John lowered the tree and made a face. "I'm talking to a twig," he said in an unimpressed tone.

John didn't notice the metal sphere hatching another spider just behind him.

* * *

"Oi! Careful with that!" the Wolf told the small attendants wheeling the TARDIS away. "Park her properly. No scratches." If she came back to find an injured TARDIS, there would be hell to pay.

One of the staff came up and handed her a business card. She looked down at it, and all it said was 'Have a Nice Day'. The Wolf smirked and put the card in her pocket. Now she could go find John and have a word with him. Hopefully the human hadn't gotten into too much trouble on his own.

* * *

The newly hatched metal spider started scanning John, but scuttled away when it heard the Wolf's approach.

"Johnny boy, you in here?" she asked cheerfully. "Ah, there you are. What did you think, then?"

"Yeah, it was great. Fine," John replied vaguely. "But you know, I was never much good at these kinds of events back home. Wasn't ever comfortable when I had to go to them for the hospital. Rich people there to show off to other rich people, trying to one up everybody. So, I thought I'd get some quiet in here," John explained. "Met a nice blue girl though," he added as an afterthought. "A plumber. The year five billion, and they still have plumbers! Raffalo, her name was," John rambled on, running a hand through his hair.

The Wolf stared at John, hardly daring to hope what he said was true. He wasn't begging her to take him home. He was just nervous around rich people, not aliens in general.

That was…amazing.

"You don't think the aliens are – too alien?" the Wolf asked cautiously. _You don't think I'm too alien?_

"Well, it'll take some getting used to," John admitted. "I mean, they're aliens. That's weird. But, Raffalo was normal enough, despite the – blue. She said she was from somewhere called Cris – Cres – Crespallion?" John struggled a little bit over the unfamiliar word. "Where are you from, Wolf?" he asked.

The Wolf evaded the question. "All over the place."

John let it go for the time being. "I was more surprised that they all spoke English though," John replied. "I would have thought there'd be millions of languages out there."

"Oh, there are." The Wolf grinned. "You just hear English. Gift of the TARDIS. It's a telepathic field. Gets inside your brain and translates for you."

"Your sentient spaceship is inside my head translating?" John asked, staring at the Wolf. The Wolf nodded, still smiling. "You didn't think you should tell me that piece of information?"

The Wolf smile slipped off her face. "I didn't think about that."

"Your ship is inside and changing my mind and you didn't think about it? What were you thinking about?" John accused.

"Well, in a good way," the Wolf said defensively.

John let out a frustrated breath. "Look, is it safe? I'm a surgeon. It's not going to melt my brain or anything, is it?"

"Nah, it's perfectly safe. Your little Earth-human brain will be fine," the Wolf assured him.

John nodded. "Okay. Just…next time, tell me something like that? Little bit of a heads up would be nice." He had a thought. "And don't poke fun at my planet. That's my home down there, burning." The Wolf stiffened, but John didn't notice. "Where are you from anyways? What planet? You didn't say before," John pushed.

"It's not as if you'd know where it is," the Wolf scoffed.

"Where are you from?"

"What does it matter?" The Wolf was starting to get antsy, but John didn't want to let it go.

"Why can't you just tell me who you are?"

The Wolf exploded. "This is who I am! Right here, right now, alright? All that counts is here and now, and this is me!" She stood up and paced over to the viewing window, obviously through with the conversation.

John looked down, feeling slightly ashamed. The Wolf had saved him and everyone else on his planet yesterday, if she didn't want to answer a personal question, what gave him the right to push? The clues she'd given about people dying, a war destroying planets as the Nestene Consciousness had accused her of, and the thoughts he had of her being alone gave John a sinking feeling that she was truly alone. That the Wolf had absolutely no one. And there was a dark reason why, one the Wolf refused to think about.

Time to give her some space. John looked for a way to defuse the tension he had unwittingly caused. He sighed and got up to stand next to the Wolf. She ignored him, still staring out the window. "Well, don't argue with the designated driver if you want a ride home." The Wolf smiled a bit at that, but didn't look at him. "I am sorry, Wolf. I didn't mean to pry," John apologized gently.

At that, the Wolf finally faced him. "Accepted." She smiled, and John relaxed.

They were quiet for a time, and John was the next to break the more comfortable silence. "Look at this. Top of the world," he said in wonder.

The Wolf chuckled a bit.

"Everyone I know is down there, five billion years ago. They're all gone now," John said. "But you, you can go back, see it all again. Everything in the past and future – for you, it's all happening right now."

The Wolf smiled. "Not a bad life."

"But isn't it better with two?" John asked.

The Wolf opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the entire space station shaking. When they recovered their balance, she looked at him with a sly grin and said, "That's not supposed to happen."

John grinned back. Her excitement was contagious. The Wolf grabbed his hand, and they ran out of the viewing gallery together.

* * *

In an office down the hall, the Steward screamed as he burned when the sun filter on his window descended.

Another metal spider escaped through a vent before the sun filter reached the floor.

* * *

As he and the Wolf re-entered the guest gallery, John overheard one of the guests speaking to a small group. "Indubitably, this is the Wolf Storm scenario. I find the inherent laxity of the on-going multiverse strictly unacceptable…"

The Wolf pulled John over to Jabe before he could catch the rest of the conversation he'd heard that made absolutely no sense.

"That wasn't a gravity pocket," the Wolf was saying. "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe? Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. Is that dodgy or what?" John listened. The station was making some strained sounding noises, but he was no expert on car mechanics back home, let alone space stations from the year five billion.

Jabe shrugged. "It is the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Where's the engine room?" the Wolf asked.

"I don't know," Jabe replied, "but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your husband."

The Wolf and John both started shaking their heads. "Yeah, no, he's not my husband," the Wolf said fervently.

"Partner?" Jabe asked.

"No."

"Consort?"

"Nope."

"Prostitute?"

John had had enough. "Excuse me, right here," he pointed to himself. "Do you mind? Not invisible, thanks. What I am is Wolf's friend, in a very normal, platonic sort of way." The Wolf hid a grin, and Jabe looked at him with a new appreciation, but John wasn't in the mood. That Cassandra woman was acting strangely and eyeing the Wolf with, frankly, far too much interest. It was getting on his nerves. He turned back to Jabe and the Wolf. "Tell you what." He pointed at Jabe. "Why don't you go pollinate in the maintenance duct." He pointed at the Wolf. "You, go with her, find out what's going on, while I catch up with the family." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at Cassandra. "Quick word with Michael Jackson."

The Wolf wasn't even bothering to hide her amused smile anymore. Apparently, she thought he was hilarious. "Don't start a fight," she called after him as he began to walk away. John gave a wave over his shoulder. "Shall we go pollinate?" she asked Jabe. They made to leave the gallery.

John turned around. "And I want you both home by midnight," he joked. He missed the Wolf's responding laugh when the computer droned that Earth death would occur in fifteen minutes.

Cassandra was delivering an ongoing monologue to whoever would listen as John walked up to her. "Soon, the sun will blossom into a red giant, and my home will die. That's where I used to live, when I was a little boy, down there. Mummy and Daddy had a little house built into the side of the Los Angeles Crevice. I'd have such fun."

"Erm, I think you mean little girl, Cassandra," John corrected. "But what happened to everyone else? The human race, where did it go?" he asked. _There has to be some left, somewhere._

"They say that mankind has touched every star in the sky."

That was actually kind of poetic, coming from a stretch of skin. John couldn't help feeling a bit relieved at her answer though. "So, you're not the last human."

"I am the last pure human. The others…mingled," Cassandra said with disgust. "Oh, they call themselves New Humans and Proto-Humans and Digi-Humans, even Humanish. But you know what I call them? Mongrels."

John nodded. "Right. And you got left behind."

"I kept myself pure," Cassandra replied indignantly.

"Yeah, and how many operations have you had?"

"Seven hundred and eight. Next week, it's seven hundred and nine. I'm having my blood bleached," she said proudly.

"Yeah, well I'm a surgeon, and in all I've seen in my career, I've seen operations help people, save them. But you, you've perverted what it means to be human." John was working up a full head of steam. "I was born on that planet, and so were my mum and dad, and that makes me officially the last human being in this room, because you're certainly not human. You've had it all nipped and tucked and flattened 'til there's nothing left. Anything human got chucked in the bin years ago. You're just skin, Cassandra. Ego and skin. I would have rather died than become a bitchy trampoline like you. Nice talking."

John stormed towards the door, not waiting to hear if the woman had a reply.

Cassandra stared after him thoughtfully, as did the cloaked aliens who had handed out the spheroid gifts containing the metal spiders.

John didn't notice any of this, nor did he see the Face of Boe watching him leave with a concerned look.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Wolf and Jabe had entered the maintenance duct and were following its path.

"Who's in charge of Platform One?" the Wolf questioned. "Is there a Captain, or what?"

"There's just the Steward and his staff. All the rest is controlled by the metal mind," Jabe informed her.

"You mean the computer?" the Wolf asked. Jabe nodded. "Well who controls that?"

"The Storm Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another."

"So there's no one from this Corporation on board," the Wolf stated.

"They're not needed. This facility is purely automatic. It's the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong," Jabe assured her.

"Unsinkable?"

Jabe shrugged. "If you like. The nautical metaphor is appropriate in this instance."

The Wolf scoffed. "I was onboard another ship once. They said that was unsinkable, too. I ended up clinging to an iceberg all night, waiting for my ship to surface. Wasn't half cold." The Wolf grimaced at the recollection, trying to purge her memory of all the bodies that had floated past her while she waited for the TARDIS. She pulled herself back to the topic at hand with effort. "But what you're saying is, if we did get into trouble, there's no one to help us out?" she asked for clarity's sake.

Jabe stopped to think about it. "I'm afraid not."

"Fantastic," the Wolf said with a predatory grin. She moved on quickly down the duct.

Jabe followed after her. "I don't understand. In what way is that 'fantastic'?" The Wolf ignored her in favor of continuing her search for access to the engine room.

After a minute or two of silence, the Wolf asked, "So tell me Jabe, what's a tree like you doing in a great metal place like this?"

"Respect for the Earth," was the reply.

The Wolf made a disbelieving noise. "Oh, come off it. Everyone on this platform is worth zillions."

"Well, perhaps it's a case of being seen at the right occasions," Jabe admitted.

"In case your share prices drop? I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots on every other planet. There's always money in land," she said derisively.

"All the same, we respect the Earth as family," Jabe defended herself. "So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest."

The Wolf was distracted from the conversation when they finally reached a likely looking panel jutting out from the duct wall next to a door that read 'WELCOME TO PLATFORM ONE'.

"Excuse me," the Wolf said, and turned to the panel. She tried to access the maintenance log in, but was denied entrance. She tried again with the same result. Eventually, the Wolf pulled out her sonic screwdriver. She was about to attempt to open the door in front of them with it when Jabe laid a hand over her arm.

"But what about your ancestry, Wolf?" Jabe asked. "Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a woman only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species." The Wolf froze. "It refused to admit your very existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it."

The Wolf was silent, staring at the wall, caught in memories too dark to name. However, Jabe wasn't done speaking. "But it was right. I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say…how sorry I am," she said with sympathy in her voice.

The Wolf stared at the door. Her eyes were bright, but she refused to let a tear fall. Finally, the Wolf collected herself, gently removed Jabe's hand from her arm, and got the door open with her screwdriver. "Let's go," she said.

The Wolf stepped through the doorway into the chilly air of the engine room.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so strange request. I've been searching for a story I read on here a while back, at least five months ago, and have been entirely unable to find it due to not remembering the name of the story or the author. I'm completely fed up, and so am turning to you guys. I know that it's about Rose returning to the Doctor, and in the process she meets all of his incarnations. It's one of those deals I think where she disappears in some kind of golden shower. When she meets up with the Third Doctor, the Master is involved, and I think Rose gets shot. She disappears and turns up with the Fourth Doctor, who is able to heal her. I also think the Seventh Doctor meeting involves a creepy carnival type thing and Captain Jack shows up for that adventure. That's it, that's all I remember. If any of you happen to know what the hell I'm talking about, please, send me a message or a review. I would be eternally grateful. And I promise I will never write a note this long again!**


	7. Raise Shields

**A/N: Thank you for all the responses I got on the last chapter, they were very encouraging. And a big thank you to _ElvenSailorGirl _and _mychemicalromance1817_ for pointing me in the right direction in my search! Here is the last part of The End of the World, for your enjoyment.**

* * *

_Previously: __"Where are you from anyways? What planet? You didn't say before," John pushed. "Why can't you just tell me who you are?"_

"_That's not supposed to happen."_

_You're just skin, Cassandra. Ego and skin. Nice talking." John stormed towards the door. Cassandra stared after him thoughtfully, as did the cloaked aliens who had handed out the metal spiders. John didn't notice any of this, nor did he see the Face of Boe watching him leave with a concerned look._

"_I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say…how sorry I am," Jabe said with sympathy in her voice._

_The Wolf stepped through the doorway into the chilly air of the engine room._

* * *

Raise Shields

John was walking quickly towards the exit, just wanting to get away from Cassandra. He hadn't meant to get angry, but she just rubbed him the wrong way, besides the whole skin stretched across a frame look. Like she was putting on a show for everyone else to distract them.

He was being silly. It had to be that he just didn't like her. Cassandra was rude and narrow-minded, the kind of person John couldn't stand back home, believing that she alone was in the right, somehow above everyone else. And John couldn't be in the same room as her anymore.

_John Smythe._

John halted his mad dash to the door. He looked over his shoulder for who had called him, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to him. The only ones who even knew his name were the Steward and the Wolf, and she hadn't returned with Jabe yet, and the Steward was nowhere to be seen. John shrugged and turned to leave again. He must have imagined it.

_Doctor John Smythe. Do not leave just yet. _

John stopped once more, a frown forming. There was still no one even looking at him. The aliens were all chatting in small groups, not appearing to be the slightest bit interested in John's confusion.

_The Wolf will have need of you, John. There is danger if you leave._

John stayed where he was, for the moment, trying to assess where the voice he had heard had come from. He had watched all the aliens while the last sentences were spoken to him. None of them had looked at him or said anything in his general direction. The voice was literally coming from nowhere.

_Just wait._

John's eyes widened. _No way._ No one had spoken to him. The only one who would really have anything to say to him was the Wolf, and she wasn't here. There was no physical evidence that anyone had said anything to him. But the Wolf had said…telepathic. Her TARDIS was telepathic. Could get inside his head and change things.

Was it beyond the realm of possibility that someone in this room, male by the sound of the voice, was telepathic, like the TARDIS, and had warned him to stay in the room until the Wolf returned? Someone who knew that danger was coming?

With all John had seen in the past couple of days, not much could be impossible anymore. He decided that there couldn't be any harm in waiting around for the Wolf to come back, as long as he avoided the urge to bounce on Cassandra like the trampoline that she was.

* * *

The Wolf entered the engine room, and was greeted to a view of several enormous fans cooling the engines, with a catwalk running through them.

"Is it me, or is it just a bit nippy in here?" the Wolf asked. "Well done, though. That is a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of, nice and old fashioned." The Wolf grinned. "I bet they call it retro."

The Wolf scanned a panel next to the door, and pulled it off. "Ah, here we are."

Jabe gave a cry of surprise when a metal spider scuttled out of the panel and climbed the wall.

"What the hell is that?" the Wolf asked.

"Is that part of the retro?" Jabe asked. The spider continued its escape.

The Wolf pulled out her sonic screwdriver. "I don't think so. Just hang on a second." The Wolf aimed, but before she could do anything, Jabe lassoed it with what looked like a vine shooting from her arm, and brought the spider back down to the floor.

The Wolf grinned. "Nice liana."

"Thank you. We're not supposed to show them in public," Jabe replied.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anybody." The Wolf deactivated the spider and knelt to examine it. "Now, who's been bringing their pets on board?"

"What does it do?"

"Sabotage," the Wolf said grimly. "The temperature in here is about to sky rocket. We need to get back to the gallery." The Wolf scooped up the spider and handed it over to Jabe, and together they ran out of the engine room as the computer droned that Earth death would occur in ten minutes.

* * *

John was getting nervous, waiting for the Wolf to return with Jabe. The cloaked aliens had begun watching him when he took a position near the door, as if waiting for him to do something. Cassandra also cast annoyed looks his way every few minutes. He must have really gotten under her skin.

John grinned at his own bad pun, but the computer calling for Earth death in ten minutes sobered him.

Where the hell was the Wolf?

* * *

As the Wolf and Jabe were making their way back to the observation gallery, they passed several small attendants gathered anxiously at a door that was pouring smoke and light from its cracks. The child-like aliens were making distressed sounds as they tried to enter the room.

"Hold on." The Wolf worked her way through the small group to the doorway. "Stand back a moment," she said kindly. She sonic-ed the door, and the computer voice stated "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."

"Is the Steward in there?" Jabe asked in shock. "That's his office!"

The Wolf made a disgusted face. "You can smell him." She turned to the small workers. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

The Wolf was angry. Someone had sabotaged this station, and a person was dead because of them. She hated not being able to save people. The Wolf felt guilty that she hadn't been in time to save the Steward, even though a small voice in her head told there was no way she could've known what was happening in time to rescue him.

Suddenly, a horrific thought occurred to her. "John!" she cried. "I left him alone. What if he's wandered off again?" The Wolf took off running for the observation gallery, Jabe following close behind.

* * *

John was still waiting by the door, contemplating the strange voice in his head, when the Wolf burst into the room, quickly followed by Jabe. He watched in bemusement as she scanned the room hastily.

"Wolf?" he asked from behind her.

The Wolf whirled around. "John! Good you're here," she said with relief. "I was afraid you'd wandered away."

John raised his eyebrows. "Where am I gonna go? Ipswich?"

The Wolf grinned, but then grew serious. "Someone's sabotaged this whole station – with these metal spiders." She held it out for John to inspect. "And the Steward's dead."

John's mouth dropped open in surprise. "What are you going to do?"

"Find out who did this." The Wolf's eyes were hard. John almost felt sorry for the culprit. He wouldn't want to be on the Wolf's bad side. Ever.

Jabe walked to the center of the room. The Wolf and John followed, allowing Jabe to take the lead. "If I could have everyone's attention please," Jabe called loudly. "There is a situation which calls for immediate action."

Slowly, the chattering of the guests died down as they turned to Jabe. Jabe put out her hand, and the Wolf gave over the metal spider. Jabe scanned it with the same device she had used on the Wolf earlier.

"Someone has committed sabotage against this station. The metal machine confirms. The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One," she said gravely.

"How is that possible?" Cassandra exclaimed, sounding slightly panicked. "Our private rooms are protected by a code wall. Moisturize me, moisturize me," she commanded her helpers. They complied, spraying her down gently.

"Summon the Steward," said the alien sitting on a platform that John had overheard speaking earlier about different scenarios and storms and other things he hadn't understood.

"I am afraid the Steward is dead," Jabe replied. There was uproar in the room as guests started shouting over one another, trying to be heard.

"Who killed him?" came above the rest of the din.

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face," Cassandra shrieked. John glared at her as the Face of Boe shook his head calmly. Finally, the Wolf decided to step in.

"There's an easy way to find out. Someone brought their little pet on board. I can send him back to master," she said. The Wolf took the spider back from Jabe, set it on the ground, and activated it using her sonic screwdriver. Everyone watched it intently, waiting to find out who the murderer was.

The spider scuttled along on the floor until it was standing in front of Cassandra. She stared down at it, and the spider quickly moved away and stopped in front of the black cloaked aliens who had given the metal spheres as gifts earlier.

Everyone in the room gasped, then were silent, before Cassandra broke in, crying, "The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. J'accuse!" John stared at her suspiciously, getting the feeling there was more happening than met the eye.

The Wolf seemed to have the same idea, as she scoffed and said, "That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it…" She went over to the Adherents. The leader attempted to hit her, but she grabbed its arm and tugged it off with a quick jerk. Wires could be seen coming out of the stump of the arm the Wolf had broken off. "A Repeated Meme is just an idea. And that's all they are, an idea," the Wolf finished. Then, with one last pull of a wire coming out of the Adherent with the broken arm, the rest of the Adherents collapsed.

John grinned. "You have a thing for the arms of dummies don't you? Or is it just when I'm around?"

The Wolf looked back over to him, winked, and grinned her tongue-touched grin at him, before turning back to the mess she'd made and nudging the spider. "Remote controlled droids. Nice cover for the real culprit here. Go on Jimmy boy, go home." She nudged it again, and the spider once again made its way over to Cassandra, stopping for good.

"I bet you were the school strut that never got the man," Cassandra said snidely at the Wolf. The Wolf remained unfazed, merely staring at Cassandra in contempt. "At arms!" Cassandra ordered. Her two attendants raised their spray guns.

The Wolf held up her hands. John walked up behind her, ready to pull her out of the way if necessary. "What are you going to do, moisturize me?" The Wolf said with a grin.

"With acid," Cassandra replied smugly. John tensed behind the Wolf. "Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just as pretty face."

John gave her a funny look and finally spoke up, causing the Wolf to jump; she hadn't known he was behind her. "Sabotaging the station while you're still inside it? How stupid is that?" John asked.

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous."

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money," the Wolf said with disgust.

Cassandra glared. "Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Wolf. Me! Not that cocky little doctor of yours."

"Arrest her!" the talkative sitting alien yelled.

"Oh, shut it, pixie. I've still got my final option," Cassandra said.

The Computer decided to jump in. "Earth death in three minutes."

"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead," Cassandra said gleefully. "My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go?" Her eyes narrowed. "Burn, baby, burn."

"Then you'll burn with us," Jabe told her defiantly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Cassandra replied, not sounding sorry at all. "I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders, activate!" Cassandra commanded. The entire station shook violently as a series of explosions through the Platform could be felt.

Cassandra giggled. "Force fields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me," she giggled again.

"Safety systems failing," the Computer said.

"Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings," Cassandra called as she and her attendants beamed off of the Platform.

Everyone in the observation gallery was frozen, until the silence was disrupted once again by the computer. "Heat levels rising."

"Reset the computer," that talkative alien suggested.

"Only the Steward would know how," Jabe replied.

John started to lose hope. The whole station was going to blow up and it seemed like there was nothing they could do to stop it. He had been wondering if the Wolf could have just saved them all using the TARDIS, but John doubted they could get every guest onto her ship before the sun reached them through the weakened shields. However, the Wolf's voice brought hope rushing back into him.

"We can do it by hand," she said. "There has got to be a system restore switch. Johnny, Jabe, come on!" The Wolf started to run out of the room, heading back for the maintenance duct, John just behind her, Jabe not much further back. The Wolf turned back to the crowd. "You lot, just chill!"

"Heat levels rising."

* * *

"Earth death in two minutes. Earth death in two minutes," sounded as the three ran down the maintenance duct towards the engine room. "Heat levels critical."

The Wolf, John, and Jabe ran into the engine room. John stared at the huge metal blades spinning in the air above them in awe. "Heat levels critical."

"Oh great. Look where the switch is," the Wolf said in annoyance, pointing down the catwalk. John could see the large switch disappearing and reappearing with the turn of the blades. The fans increased in speed, desperately trying to cool down the engines. The Wolf pulled down on a lever next to her. The fans slowed, but as soon as she let it go, they went back to their fast pace.

"External temperature five thousand degrees," the Computer informed them.

Jabe moved to hold down the lever, but John jumped to beat her to it. "You can't! This place is going to get filled with all the excess heat Jabe, and you're made of wood! You have to get out of here," John told her. Jabe looked indecisive.

"He's right Jabe," the Wolf said. "You'll burn if you stay. Go back to the observation gallery. They need someone to be in charge and calm up there."

Jabe nodded. "Don't waste time, Time Lady." She left, leaving the Wolf frozen, staring after her, and John giving the Wolf a confused look.

"Heat levels rising, heat levels rising."

* * *

"Heat levels hazardous." The observation gallery looked like a war zone when Jabe returned. People were running around, trying to escape the cracks in the viewing windows that were allowing deadly light rays to enter the room.

"We're going to die!" One guest cried.

"Everyone back here!" Jabe called. "Get away from the windows!" People started to make their way back to her and were taking cover behind some pillars. However, several of the small attendants were panicked. Jabe ran over to try and herd them over to the rest of the crowd.

She never saw the ray of light lance into the room right on top of her.

* * *

John held down the breaker as the Wolf ran up to the first fan. It had slowed down quite a bit with John holding the lever, and she could make it past easily.

Then the breaker started to conduct the heat that the fans would have normally held back. John winced as he felt burns start to form on his hands. He gave a small grunt in pain.

The Wolf looked back at him in concern. The fans were starting to speed back up due to the rise in heat, despite John holding the lever. The Wolf dashed through the second fan, leaving only one to go.

"Heat levels rising, heat levels rising."

The pain was nearly unbearable. John was fairly certain he could smell his hands burning. The fans were just as fast now as they were before John had grabbed hold of the breaker, making it seemingly impossible for the Wolf to make it through the last fan in order to manually reset the system. John yelled in pain as the heat reached unexpected new levels and coursed through his palms.

The Wolf looked back, worried about John. She could see him hunched over the breaker, obviously in pain, but still holding it down. Still, with the fans increasing speed as the room got hotter, she had no way through, even with John sacrificing himself the way he was.

The Computer spoke one more time. "Planet explodes in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five –"

The Wolf closed her eyes. She hadn't done this in a long time. She couldn't even remember the last time she had done this as she slowed down time in a way only she could….

…and she stepped through the last fan easily.

* * *

John stared at the Wolf as things seemed to go strange around her. All of a sudden, it was like she had moved faster than he could see, from one side of the fan to the other in the blink of an eye. She hadn't run, she hadn't jumped, and the fans hadn't slowed down. He didn't see how she could've done it. But she was suddenly at the switch and pulling it down.

* * *

Once the Wolf had stepped through, she opened her eyes, unsurprised to find herself safe on the other side. She dashed over to the switch and slammed it down, yelling "Raise shields!"

John could immediately feel the difference as the station was enveloped in a protective force field just as the Earth exploded in fire. He let go of the lever, leaving what felt like at least four layers of his skin behind. The Wolf ran back over to him through the fans that had conveniently halted, and inspected his palms. John winced as he saw them. They looked bad.

The Wolf hissed in sympathy. "I'll get these taken care of as soon as we get back to the TARDIS John, I promise. But we need to take care of something first."

"Cassandra?" John asked, putting his hands out of his mind for now.

"Cassandra," the Wolf confirmed, face set.

* * *

When he and the Wolf returned to the gallery, several piles of smoking ashes told John that they had been too late to save everyone. He searched the room frantically, stomach sinking when he couldn't find Jabe.

The Wolf was also scanning the room. Her face hardened when she, too, could not locate Jabe. She walked over to the two other trees who had attended with Jabe, and who now appeared distraught. "I'm sorry," she said softly. They nodded.

The Wolf made her way back to John, fiercely scrubbing at something on her face before he could see what it was, although he had his suspicions.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied harshly. "In fact, I'm full of ideas, just bristling with them. Number one is, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Number two, this feed would have to be hidden nearby." The Wolf stalked over to the ostrich egg, which had somehow miraculously escaped unscathed, and promptly smashed it, revealing a small transmitter inside of it. "Idea number three, someone as clever as me could reverse said teleportation device." She pressed a button.

"Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces…..Oh." Cassandra was beamed back into the gallery.

"The last human," the Wolf said in disgust.

"So you passed my little test. Bravo," Cassandra said nervously. "This makes you eligible to join the, er, Human Club."

"People died Cassandra. You murdered them," John accused.

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep lawyers dizzy for centuries," Cassandra said snidely. "Take me to court, then, Madam Wolf, and watch me smile and cry and flutter –"

"And creak?" the Wolf asked.

"And what?"

"Creak. You're creaking," the Wolf said again.

"What?" Cassandra asked.

Sure enough, John could hear Cassandra start to creak and could see cracks forming in her skin.

"Ah! I'm drying out. Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturize me, moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature," the Wolf pointed out.

"Have pity! Moisturize me! Oh, Wolf, Doctor boy, I'm sorry. I'll do anything!"

John stepped up next to the Wolf, his disgust outweighed by sympathy. "Can you help her?" he asked.

The Wolf's eyes were hard as she watched Cassandra. "Everything has its time and everything dies," she replied.

"I'm…too…young!" Cassandra got out just before her skin burst, splattering pieces around the room.

The Wolf turned to John. "Come on," she said quietly. "Let's go take care of those hands." She took his wrist to lead him to where the TARDIS was parked, but John stopped to look out at the bits of Earth floating past the Platform.

"No one saw it go," he said sadly. "We were too busy saving ourselves."

"I know," the Wolf said apologetically. "Come with me." Again she pulled gently, and this time, John followed.

* * *

When they reached the TARDIS, the Wolf led John down a hall to a room he hadn't seen yet. It appeared to be some kind of advanced medical bay, but the pain in his hands had escalated enough to distract John from looking around like he normally would have.

The Wolf sat him down on a bed, and grabbed a machine that she told to John to insert his hands into. "It's a dermal regenerator. It will give you a head start in the healing process." John sighed in relief when the pain decreased by a dramatic amount. Next, she put some kind of ointment on his palms before wrapping them in bandages. "Just leave those on for a couple of hours, and then we'll check them, okay?"

John nodded. The Wolf made to leave the room, but John didn't want her to go just yet.

"My hands. Are they going to be okay? You know, will I still be able to use them for my work and stuff?" he asked.

The Wolf turned and smiled. "They'll be as good as new in a few hours, I promise."

John nodded, relieved. "Good, that's good." He looked down at them.

"And John?" He looked back up to see the Wolf staring at him, as if coming to a decision. "Thank you, for today. You were fantastic back there. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there to help me. And I'm sorry that I snapped at you in that gallery. It's just that, you think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it doesn't. One day it will all be gone. Even the sky," she trailed off.

John got up from the gurney and went over to take her hand. The Wolf didn't even notice. She was staring at the wall of the medical bay in a sort of daze.

"My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth, before its time."

"What happened?" John asked quietly.

"There was a war. And everyone lost. No one could ever win. It could only end."

John's suspicions were confirmed. All the hints that had been building over the last few days, hints from the Wolf, from the Nestene Consciousness, they all led back to a war that she had fought in. One that sounded as though she was lucky to have survived.

"A war with who?" John asked. "What happened to your people?"

Pain flashed across the Wolf's eyes, almost making him regret asking, but then she spoke again. "I'm a Time Lady, or Lord. The last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I was the only survivor." The look in her eyes was haunting. "I was left travelling on my own 'cause there was no one else left."

John squeezed her hand, causing her to look up at him. "There's me," he said firmly.

The Wolf gave him a smile that looked more like a grimace. "You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"

John thought about it. "I don't know," John said. "Oh, wait. Yes I do." The Wolf nodded her head knowingly. Here it came, the part where he begged to be taken back to his safe, well, relatively safe, life back on Earth, and wanted nothing to do with her ever again. This is how it always ended eventually.

What John said next could not have surprised her more.

"I want you to show me how all this stuff in here works."

The Wolf looked at him, confused. "What?"

John shrugged. "Well, if the last several days are anything to go by, I can count on you and me getting hurt quite often." John let go of the Wolf so that he could wave his hands to gesture at the medical bay. "I think it'd be a good idea to know how to use all these machines so that I can help you if you're ever too injured to do it yourself. Plus," John grinned, "I'm a doctor. I'm curious."

It had been the right thing to say. The Wolf grinned up at him with that tongue-touched smile John was starting to think she only showed to him. She grabbed his hand again, and leaned her head against his shoulder briefly before lifting it. "I think that is an excellent idea, Doctor John Smythe."

He could help her. She was running. From her past, from her memories, from herself, he didn't know exactly what. But he could help. Show her it was alright to live and alright to care. John squeezed the Wolf's hand, at that moment, never wanting to let her go.


	8. Interlude: On Telepathic Creatures

_Previously: Was it beyond the realm of possibility that someone in this room, male by the sound of the voice, was telepathic, like the TARDIS? With all John had seen in the past couple of days, not much could be impossible anymore._

_The breaker started to conduct the heat that the fans would have normally held back. John winced as he felt burns start to form on his hands._

"_My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth, before its time."_

_John squeezed the Wolf's hand, at that moment, never wanting to let her go._

* * *

Interlude: On Telepathic Creatures

John was lost. Well and truly lost.

He had been searching the halls for what seemed like hours, though it probably wasn't more than one, attempting to find the Wolf after he'd woken up that morning.

It had been a few days since the incident on Platform One. As the Wolf had promised, his hands had healed completely by the time he went to bed that night, leaving no signs that he had ever been injured in the first place. John was relieved. As a surgeon, he needed full use of his hands. Any loss in dexterity could have been disastrous to his chosen career.

The next day, the Wolf had taken John to a market place on another planet so that he could have an introduction to aliens that did not involve mortal danger. He had really enjoyed himself. He and the Wolf had toured the stalls, not buying, just looking, and the Wolf had explained anything that John held up to her for inspection that he didn't recognize. Which was pretty much everything he saw.

John had also enjoyed watching the aliens walking past him, going about their business. It was fascinating to him to see all the different species. There had been cat-people, some orange humanoids at least seven feet tall, even some aliens walking along on all fours, only standing on two feet to do some haggling at the stalls.

The Wolf had seemed to be having fun as well, getting pleasure in seeing him so enamored with the people around him. Even the city was beautiful – glistening roads and tall buildings made of bamboo like rods, but stronger. The hardest thing for him that day had been when they had stopped to eat at a roadside café. The Wolf had ordered for John, promising that he would like it. John still didn't know what he had eaten, but it had tasted fairly good, so he let it go without asking what it was, too afraid to find out.

The two of them had spent the entire day at the market before retiring back to the TARDIS. The next day, they had stayed on the ship, and the Wolf had kept her promise to start showing him his way around the infirmary. John was like a kid in a candy store with all the cool gadgets she had lying around in that room. The Wolf had equipment thousands of years ahead of Earth, from all kinds of planets, and John felt like he could never begin to remember what everything in the medical bay did, although he was having great fun trying.

The Wolf was happy to show him around. She seemed glad to just have the company and someone to talk to, and maybe to show off a little to. John quickly learned that she was an incredible genius, light years ahead of him, and not just because of her being more experienced than him, for all she looked over a decade younger. Either way, she didn't seem to mind spending the day in, though with her energy, John was sure the Wolf would want to be on the go again soon.

But right now, he just wanted to find her.

John was starting to get the feeling that the TARDIS was testing him. Like some sort of initiation. He stopped to send a glare up at the ceiling. "You know, I could start referring to you as just a space ship or vehicle again," he threatened.

The lights flashed, sending him into complete darkness for a few seconds.

"Or," he amended quickly, "we could both be nice, and I'll keep treating you like the living being you are, and you keep the lights on and things in some kind of order?" Accepting the TARDIS was alive was one thing, her actually changing her insides around was something else. Although John didn't understand why he was surprised. The Wolf had said she could do things like that. The TARDIS changed things inside his head, why shouldn't she change how she looked? It was just bloody frustrating. John called the TARDIS a few choice names in his head.

He groaned as he hit another hall with no doors. "Are you reading my mind?" he accused. The lights flashed once. "Is that a yes?" They flashed once more. "Alright. Any chance of me getting out of here someday?" One flash. "Soon?" There was no answer. John groaned again, banging his head against the wall, trying to think of a way to placate the sentient ship.

"Okay, look. Sorry. I promise to be nice, and not threaten you anymore, although I seriously doubt I could do anything anyways. Could you _please_ show me where the Wolf is?" John asked. He felt a little silly asking the ship for a favor, but he seemed to be out of options.

Apparently, that was all the TARDIS was waiting for, as suddenly, a path of lights appeared under the walkway, leading down a hall before leaving his line of sight. John sighed in relief. "Thanks girl." The lights flashed once, and John thought he could hear a hum in the background.

The path the TARDIS made led John to the library, though it was far away from where it had been the last time John had seen it. His shoulders slumped in relief when he saw the Wolf reclined on a couch, reading. He plopped down next to her, causing her to look up from her book.

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you in a while," she observed, going back to her page.

John rolled his eyes. "Talk to your ship. She's been leading me in circles for the past hour. I don't think she's too impressed with me."

The Wolf raised her eyebrows. "Have you seen your room? The old girl loves you. She was probably just testing you. She likes to do that to new companions. I don't know why, she doesn't tell me. I wouldn't worry too much about it. She probably won't do it for long, given how much she already likes you," the Wolf assured him.

"You can actually talk to the TARDIS, and she answers back?" John asked, fascinated.

The Wolf shrugged. "Not so much as in words. It's more feelings and nudges. Sometimes, in an emergency, she can speak to me. We've been together a long time. Even if she rarely takes me where I want to go, she takes me where she thinks I need to be. She's home," she said simply.

"So when she does talk, it's telepathic, right?" The Wolf nodded. "Are there other telepathic creatures out there like the TARDIS? Like, they can have whole conversations inside their heads?" he asked.

"Sure, a fair few," the Wolf answered easily. "Most of them are friendly enough. There's one planet where the population's language consists entirely of singing telepathically. Kind of like whales on your planet, but in their minds."

"Were there any species like that on Platform One?"

The Wolf thought for a moment then shook her head. "Not that I know of. There were a couple races I hadn't met before, but I haven't heard that any of them are telepathic by nature. Why?"

"I don't know, it's weird," John tried to explain. "After you and Jabe left, and I had that talk with Cassandra, she made me angry, and I just wanted to get away from everyone."

The Wolf chuckled. "I can imagine she had that effect on most people."

John smiled in return, then got back to his concern. "But as I was leaving the room, someone called me by name. Told me to stop."

The Wolf set her book down on the end table and sat up to pay closer attention to what John was saying. "Do you know who it was?"

John shook his head. "No. It sounded male, but that was all I could figure out. I looked around, but no one was talking to me out loud, or at least, I didn't see any mouths moving. And the only people on that Platform who knew my name were you and the Steward. By then, you were off with Jabe, and the Steward was in his office."

"What exactly did this voice tell you John?" the Wolf asked intently.

John tried to remember. "He said my name, told me to stay. He said that there was erm, danger if I left, and that – you would need me." He shook his head. "That was it. I figured there wasn't any harm in sticking around, as long as I stayed away from Cassandra, and a few minutes later you showed up." John thought back to that day. "Although, Cassandra and those Adherent robots did stare at me a lot after that – like they were expecting something."

The Wolf looked thoughtful. "It almost sounds as though this creature knew what would happen before it did. I suppose it could be a product of time travel; they knew us but we don't know them yet."

"That happens?" John asked.

The Wolf gave him a grin. "More often than you would think." She shrugged. "Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Sounds like whoever they were had your best interests in mind. I wouldn't be surprised if Cassandra had something nasty planned for you since you pissed her off."

John chuckled. "She did seem the type to hold a grudge." The Wolf laughed softly.

"Ah, well." She changed the subject. "What do you say for the next trip? New planet, or Earth? Past or future?"

John grinned. "I don't care. It's up to you."

"How does Naples 1860 sound?"

"Fantastic." His answer was greeted with laughter.

* * *

**A/N: Up next, I will not be writing The Unquiet Dead. Instead, I will be attempting an original episode. It will be based in late 19****th**** century America, and will have a villain from the Seventh Doctor's era making a return. See you next week!**


	9. The Return of Kane

_Previously: "What do you say for the next trip?" the Wolf asked. "New planet, or Earth? Past or future?"_

_John grinned. "I don't care. It's up to you."_

"_Fantastic._

* * *

The Return of Kane

The TARDIS landed with a jerk, throwing John and the Wolf to the ground. The Wolf started giggling, and John couldn't help but join in. He was glad to see her enjoying herself again. After Cardiff and Gwyneth, she had disappeared into the depths of the TARDIS halls, and John hadn't seen her for hours. He knew that she felt guilty for not paying close enough attention to what the Gelth were really after, but he also knew that she had been so set on helping the Gelth because she felt so much guilt for having survived a war that none of her species had. When the Wolf had returned, John skirted around the topic, trying to let her know that she was safe and didn't have to talk if she didn't want to.

The Wolf seemed to appreciate the gesture, giving him a rare hug before asking him brightly where he wanted to go next. John had said somewhere busy. She grinned, and then started her dance around the console, leading to the thud that threw them both off their feet a few seconds ago.

John hauled himself up off the grating and held out a hand to the Wolf to pull her up as well. "Where are we?" he asked eagerly.

The Wolf grinned and held the door open for him. "John, welcome to the Windy City, 1893. The year of the World's Fair."

"We're in America?" John asked, feeling like he could barely hold in his excitement. He stepped outside quickly, with the Wolf following while speaking.

"Yep! Chicago to be precise. You're gonna love it. America celebrating 400 years since Columbus, nations from all over the world showing off, music, lectures, it's amazing. Oh." The Wolf walked right into John's back, who was holding his hands up in the air in surrender.

The Wolf peered around him, pushing him slightly to the side so she was in the forefront. "What have we here?" she asked.

John stared at the guns being pointed at him and now the Wolf by three angry-looking not quite human men. "John," the Wolf started. He looked down at her. "Do close the door, would you?" John reached behind him and shut the doors of the TARDIS firmly, making sure they were locked and the hostile aliens could not get inside.

"You will explain your presence in this building," the apparent leader demanded, "and your intentions."

"Ah, yes. Well, complete accident you see," the Wolf explained. "Never know where I'm landing. But would you mind telling me where you three are from? Since it's obviously not here," she finished, sounding authoritative.

"We are Svartosians!" one of the aliens behind answered proudly. "We serve Kane and his mighty cause!"

The Wolf stiffened. "Kane's dead," she said flatly. "He burned from the sun's rays at Proamnon. He was cryogenically altered; no way could he have survived that. And his ship was taken by some friends of mine afterwards."

"You are the Wolf!" the leader cried. "Kane warned us of you! You owe him for the Dragonfire you stole. Kane will reward us greatly when we bring you to him to freeze! He will bring a storm upon you, Wolf!"

The three soldiers started advancing on the Wolf and John. The Wolf turned to him. "Um, John?"

"Yeah?" he said, glancing at her.

"Run!" The two took off running for an exit located behind them, with the aliens chasing after. John lost count of how many blocks he and the Wolf ran before they were able to lose their pursuers in the crowds.

"Who were those guys?" John asked, panting for breath, after they stopped in an alley.

"Citizens of Iceworld, a component of the planet Svartos. They are the brainwashed soldiers of a man called Kane, a leader of a notorious criminal gang, and someone I mistakenly believed to be dead. He must have teleported out. But how did he get here?" the Wolf wondered, speaking to herself. "That was years in the future!"

"You said there were other things that can time travel," John suggested hesitantly. "A vortex – something?"

The Wolf's face lit up. "John you are a genius you are! He could have easily stolen a vortex manipulator off the first rookie Time Agent he found after he'd teleported somewhere safe. But what's he doing here?" The Wolf started pacing.

"Hey Wolf?" John asked.

"Hmm?" The Wolf hummed absently.

"Not that this is slow, per se, but I thought the World's Fair would have larger crowds than this – people from all over the world. And I don't see any of the displays they had then, either," he said.

"What?" The Wolf turned and walked back towards the street. She looked around the avenue, scanning the people. She spotted a newspaper stand and quickly nicked one. Reading it, she sagged. "I got the date a bit wrong."

"Again?" John asked with a grin.

The Wolf rolled her eyes. "Yes, again, although at least it's obvious why. Kane is a threat that needs to be taken care of."

"Well, then when are we?"

"I got the city right at least," the Wolf said defensively. "We're in Chicago, on the seventh of October, 1871."

"What's special about 1871?" John asked.

The Wolf closed her eyes and concentrated. "There's…something…oh, I can't remember everything! It's your world, why don't you know? Keep better track of your history Johnny boy!"

John gave her an unimpressed look, raising his eyebrows. "You know, not all of us have superior brains like you, Miss Time Lady," he drawled.

The Wolf rolled her eyes. "It's not important right now, it'll come to me. What we need to do is find Kane's base of operations, and then get my TARDIS back."

"What do you mean, get it back?" John asked. "I thought you said that once the doors were locked, the hordes of Genghis Khan himself couldn't get in."

The Wolf looked at John like he'd just dribbled on his shirt. "Yes, but that doesn't stop Kane's men from dragging it off wherever they like, now does it?" she said in a slow manner that made him feel like an idiot.

"Ah." John wisely shut up.

The Wolf dug around in her jacket pocket for her sonic screwdriver. "I really need to clean these pockets out," she grunted, elbow deep. Finally, she pulled the screwdriver out, adjusted the setting, flicked it on, and scanned the surrounding area in all directions. "Come on," she said. "There are abnormal temperature readings this way. That's where Kane will be."

The Wolf took off at a quick walk, John following closely behind. "What did you mean when you said Kane was cryogenically altered?" he questioned.

"I assume you know what cryogenics is." At John's nod, the Wolf continued. "I don't exactly know how it happened, never had time to ask the last time I ran afoul of him. But he somehow managed to lower his body temperature to an unbelievable level. He could freeze a person with just a touch, and all his lackeys have a freeze burn from him to mark them as his. Once you took his coin, you never got away. Kane would freeze his new soldiers until he had need of them; when they came back out, they had no memories of their previous life and were completely subservient to him. When he was done with them, he killed them," the Wolf said grimly.

"What happened when you met him?" John was curious. He hadn't heard much about the Wolf's past, and he would take whatever he could get. She was so close-lipped about her life, but from what John had seen, she used it as protection. The Wolf couldn't cope with her past since the war she'd fought in, and chose to ignore it in order to keep herself safe and, perhaps, sane. John just hoped she'd let him in someday.

"Kane was after a crystal called Dragonfire that had the ability to release him from his prison of Iceworld. He was placed there for his gang-related crimes. He eventually managed to get a hold of it, and then we realized all of Iceworld was a spacecraft, and he took off on it back to his home world of Proamnon. When we got there, Proamnon had been destroyed because its sun had gone supernova during Kane's imprisonment. With nothing left for him to take over, he opened the sun shields in the control room and let the sun's rays melt him. Or so I thought," the Wolf muttered. "It seems that he managed to escape somehow without my knowledge. But I still don't understand why he would come here!"

"There isn't something here that he could possibly want, can there?" John asked.

"No, no, no. Nothing here would be of any use to him, it's too primitive. There's no technology he could possibly need that he could get from here. Oh!" The Wolf stopped suddenly, and John nearly walked into her. "I am thick! There's nothing technological here but…" she paused.

"But what?"

"People! There are people all around! He must have come here to rebuild his army. Which means…" the  
Wolf checked her screwdriver, "these temperature readings must be his base of operations. It's where he'll be keeping his new 'recruits'," she finished with derision.

"So we go free them, yeah?" John confirmed.

"Yes, but John, you have to remember. These people, once frozen, they have no memory of their old life. Who they were is gone, and there's no way for me to return it to them." The Wolf appeared distressed at the thought.

John was troubled as well, but he tried to buck up for her sake. "That doesn't matter," he said firmly. "What matters is that you save people. And even if they can't go back to their old lives, they can still have a new life instead of being unwilling slaves to that madman. It's what you do, Wolf, you help people." The Wolf gave him a small, grateful smile. "We'll make it up as we go along, yeah? Like always?"

The Wolf finally grinned, looking like herself again. "Yeah." She grabbed his hand, and they continued on their way, following the screwdriver.

* * *

"Okay, it's nearby, but the screwdriver can't pinpoint which building exactly. It's somewhere on this street," the Wolf said as they reached an alley near Lake Michigan.

"Well," John said, looking up, "I would say it'd be the tall, menacing looking building over there," he pointed, "but I am new at the whole lair of evil overlords thing."

The Wolf grinned. "Nicely spotted, John," she complimented. "Although I think the 'Keep Out' sign may have given it away," she teased.

John huffed. "You insult my intelligence, Wolf."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll bandage it later. Come on, let's go check it out."

The Wolf soniced the padlocked gate, and she and John entered the yard with caution. "Look for some alternate way in," the Wolf told John in a low voice.

John shivered. "Is it just me, or is it colder here than out on the street?" he asked the Wolf.

"That's Kane and his influence. It's going to be much colder inside that building, believe me," she answered.

A few moments later, the Wolf spotted a side door that led to a room that appeared to have once been a kitchen. "This is the servant area, or what used to be," the Wolf explained as she led the way through to the rest of the house. "Kane will be using the larger parts of the house so he has more room for his cryogenic machines."

The Wolf continued her search of the building, intent on Kane. But John became slightly distracted by a low hum coming from another room. He crept over to a cracked door and peeked inside. His eyes widened when he saw the TARDIS in the middle of the room, being inspected by a couple guards.

John looked over his shoulder, but the Wolf was nowhere in sight. _Where did she go? _He backed away from the room slowly. _We have to get the TARDIS away from Kane. No telling what he could do with it. But where is she? _

"Wolf," John whispered. He walked upstairs quietly, on the lookout for his friend. "Wolf."

When he reached the second floor landing, John could hear muffled noises coming from a room down the hall. As he walked forward, John could feel the cold seeping underneath the doors he passed, chilling him to the bone. When he got to the room where he thought the noise was, he listened at the door to confirm it.

"So, Wolf, you have returned to foil me a second time. But this time, I am prepared for your interference. I planned for your arrival." John assumed the oily voice was Kane.

"How many people do you have locked up here Kane?" the Wolf demanded.

"Not enough, I'm afraid. A mere two hundred will not get me the resources I need." Kane sounded miffed.

"Two hundred people whose lives you've erased," the Wolf said with disgust. "It just doesn't end with you, does it?"

"It could end."

_Well, that was ominous. _John's blood ran cold. _I have to get her out of there._ _Could the freezing work on the Wolf? _She couldn't forget her life, there'd be no one left to save these people or the rest of the universe. He had to get the Wolf out before that happened, but how?

_When you're outnumbered, be distracting._ The Wolf could talk a mile a minute, maybe he could do it too. _Here goes nothing._

John took a deep breath and swung the door open. All eyes turned to stare at him. Kane's hand was outstretched towards the Wolf. The Wolf merely looked frustrated that John was there, in danger. And perhaps a little worried, too.

"Ah," John said cheerily. "Hello! This wouldn't happen to be the ice cream shop would it? I am so lost and have been looking all over the place for it. Could have sworn it used to be on the first floor but now it's just blue boxes." The Wolf's eyes widened at that and she nodded imperceptibly. "I say mate," he turned to Kane, "you really need to work on your organization of your business. How do you expect to get customers if no one knows where the shop is? Now, what flavors do you have? Banana? I love banana." He gave the silliest grin he could come up with. The Wolf had her eyes closed, shaking her head.

"Seize him!" Kane yelled at his subordinates.

"Banana? No? Damn, I was craving banana. Brisk jog then?" John took off down the hall, the soldiers running behind.

John's plan had run out after the take off running part. He dashed down the stairs, heading for the side door he and the Wolf had entered by. The two guards who had been standing watch in the TARDIS room came out when they heard the commotion of the chase.

Unfortunately for John, he had forgotten about including them in his plan, and they were much closer than the rest of Kane's guards. John swerved to avoid them, but they took him down before he could escape.

"Kane wants him with the other prisoner," one of the guards said. John was dragged unceremoniously back upstairs to Kane and the Wolf, who was still being held.

"Well," Kane drawled, "this is interesting. Where did you pick up this handsome piece, Wolf?"

The Wolf shook her head. "I've never seen him before in my life. He looks a bit daft, if you ask me."

"Yes, I see what you mean," Kane mused. "Perhaps not quite so quick as the lovely Ace, wouldn't you say? Where is she these days?"

"None of your business," the Wolf snarled.

_Ace? _John wondered.

"Not important." Kane waved the thought away. "But I am grateful to you, young man. Maybe I was about to act rashly. I would so rather the amazing Wolf live to see my plans succeed. I would like to see your face, Wolf, when I bring this world to its feet, frozen. Or maybe I'll let it burn, like Proamnon? What do you say?" The Wolf ignored him. "No matter." He turned to the guards holding them. "Lock them in Section 223 and be quick about it. I have things to do!"

The guards led the Wolf and John out at gunpoint, taking them to the fourth floor. They halted outside a door with the number 223 on it. A guard slammed the butt of his gun into the Wolf's head, and she dropped like a stone. John made to go to her, but felt an immense pain bloom behind his ear before his world, too, went dark.

The guards hauled the two bodies into the room and padlocked the door after them.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, here's part 1 of my first original chapter! Hopefully it turned out well. And I need to point out an error I made in my last chapter. I drew inspiration from the Seventh Doctor adventure, Dragonfire, not a Fourth Doctor episode. My bad, but it's fixed now. It's the adventure where we lose Mel as a companion and meet Ace! **


End file.
